The Rise of a New Legend
by Tanneal
Summary: What if Naruto never grew up in Konoha? What if he grew up under the tutelage of Jiraiya? What will happen once he returns to Konoha? Caution: A mature and highly powerful Naruto. My first fanfiction so do not hesitate to point out my mistakes.
1. Prologue

Prologue:

The Sandaime Hokage walked swiftly across the debris strewn around in the forest surrounding Konoha. He quickly reached the spot he was looking for where he found the bodies of all the medic ninjas as well as ANBU lying around. He found the body of the successor to his position, Minato Namikaze, lying alongside Kushina Uzumaki, the former jinchuuriki of Konoha and Minato's wife. Between them lay the baby boy that he was looking for, wrapped in a white cloth and soundly asleep. He signaled the ANBU to pick up all the bodies of the ninjas and take them to the morgue before picking up the sleeping baby and folding the cloth around him even more tightly so that the new born did not catch a cold. He quickly noticed the seal in the sleeping infant's belly and sighed realizing what had truly occurred in the fight. Minato had sealed the fox into Naruto and sacrificed both and his wife's life and condemned his son's life for the sake of the Konoha.

Hiruzen Sarutobi quickly made the ANBU that accompanied him to an oath of secrecy about the boy and what had truly happened in the forest. The truth was that the Kyuubi was killed by the Yondaime Hokage who gave his life for the sake of his village and died a true Shinobi's death. Kushina and the expected legacy of Minato did not survive as the enemy attacked Kushina while she was in labor killing the woman and the child. He could not give the child to the village as he quickly realized what the child's life would be if his identity was given to the council. The council will tear the boy apart before he had a chance at life. Not only was this boy the container of the Kyuubi, he was also the legacy of this village's greatest hero. Many in the council would give anything to get their hands around the boy while others would want to kill this boy instantly seeing him as the Kyuubi itself and not its jailor. Hiruzen sushined to his former office and had one of the female ANBU get the things that the boy would need immediately.

"WHAT HAPPENED TO MINATO, WHERE IS KUSHINA?" shouted Jiraiya as he walked into the office of the Hokage. He looked at his sensei's face and realized that what he heard about his dear student was true. "Is Minato really dead?" he asked softly to Hiruzen Sarutobi.

"Yes, and so is his wife Kushina." Replied the Hokage in a somber tone, as he looked out to Konoha from the office's window. He turned back to Jiraiya and looked at him in the eye "What do you think we should do now? Please Jiraiya for the sake of the village that Minato sacrificed his life for, pull yourself together. We have a grave problem at our hands."

"Problem? This is a problem to you? Minato is dead! He is gone and all you can is that we have a problem? What in Kami's name is wrong with you?" said Jiraiya angrily as he glared at his sensei. "Not only that but his wife Kushina as well as Naruto are both dead and you are say-" Jiraiya stopped as Sarutobi held his hand out.

"Naruto is not dead, in fact he is in this very room and that is why we have a problem." For the first time Jiraiya noticed the bundle of white cloth in the cradle and saw the infant sleeping soundly, a little smile formed in his face as he looked closely at the boy and noticed the shock of blonde hair on his head.

"He looks just like Minato." Jiraiya turned back to the Hokage "What is the problem?"

"Take a look at the seal on the boy's stomach; tell me I am wrong in deciphering it." Hiruzen said in almost a pleading tone. Jiraiya removed the cloth and looked at the seal as both his eyes got wider.

"What was he thinking doing this to his own son? This is the same seal that Kushina had…Naruto is the new jinchuuriki? What are we going to do, this boy's life was snatched away before it even began…" ramble Jiraiya in a panicky voice.

"Calm down" ordered the Hokage and Jiraiya took a deep breath before looking back at his sensei.

"What are we going to do sensei?" he asked. "I just cannot allow you to hand him over to the council; you know full well what they will do to him. They will either want him executed or they will hand him over to Danzo and Danzo will rob the boy of everything that he is capable of becoming."

"I have already figured that out that is why the boy does not exist. This is an S-ranked secret between the people in this room. As far as Konoha is concerned the fox is dead, Minato's boy also died with Kushina, he will grow outside of the village until he is old enough to defend himself. Is that perfectly clear to you?" The Hokage said in an even and orderly voice of a military general. Jiraiya nodded only partly understanding what his sensei meant.

"Where will the boy go? Who will take care of him and who will teach him in the arts of the Shinobi?" asked Jiraiya when suddenly there was a thunderous crash an ANBU member flew into the room through the broken door of the office. Neither Jiraiya nor Sarutobi needed to turn around to know that Tsunade had just walked into the office.

"Was that really necessary hime?" asked Jiraiya as he looked at the knocked out ANBU member.

"He was not letting me in because he said that the Hokage was in a private meeting." Said Tsunade matter-of-factly, she then turned towards the Sandaime Hokage and asked the same thing that Jiraiya had asked "I came as soon as heard, what happened?"

"We don't know anything, not how the Kyuubi escaped Kushina, or who attacked the ANBU and the ninjas at the safeguard. All we know is that it is now sealed in Naruto and he has to be moved out of the village ASAP." said Sarutobi turning back to his former students.

"Where will he go, this is his village and for at least Minato's sake shouldn't the village take care of his legacy. Naruto has his own house and there are many that will gladly take him in as their own knowing his heritage, so why the fuss?" asked Tsunade in a surprised voice.

"It is not as simple as that hime; the council will tear him apart, not only is he the son of Minato Namikaze, he is the last surviving member of the Uzumaki and the Namikaze clan, and he has the Kyuubi sealed in him. I shudder to think what this kid will become when he reached his full potential as a Shinobi. You know how harsh the council was on Kushina, they wanted to seal her memories and make her a mindless drone of Danzo, this time they will not stop even if Sarutobi sensei tried." said Jiraiya as he looked at Naruto who had just woken up and was looking at Jiraiya curiously with bright blue eyes.

"Yes, this must remain a secret just between us; I am ordering this as not only your Hokage but also as your sensei that this is an S-ranked secret that this boy is Minato's son. I am ordering Jiraiya to take this boy and train him. Bring him back if and only if he is ready. This boy has potential and I want him to be trained by the finest. Jiraiya I am handing this task to you because Minato named you his godfather at birth. As his godfather it your responsibility to look after him and also train him. You will leave the village right now and if anyone ever asks you the boy's identity, you found him in a war zone and took him in as your apprentice. I trust the sages of Mount Myouboken, though I suspect they will know his lineage even if you kept it from them. Take him there and train him under their tutelage. I know that you cannot always be with him as your duties towards Konoha but right now your first priority is Naruto. They will train Naruto well, just like they trained you and Minato and Mount Myouboku is probably the safest place for Naruto to be at the moment because foreign countries will look to assassinate Naruto if they knew whose son he was. I can only trust you with this because I know you will not fail me even if your life depended on it and take care of Naruto, after all he is my God-son's child." Hiruzen Sarutobi picked Naruto up and handed him to Jiraiya who could only stare at his sensei in disbelief. When Jiraiya was under Hiruzen Sarutobi's tutelage, he was never trusted with important things, it was always either Orochimaru or Tsunade as they were a lot more competent than he was, yet right now his sensei was trusting him with something so valuable when he could have just given the responsibility to Tsunade who was looking at Jiraiya with a smirk on her face.

"What is so funny hime?" asked Jiraiya in a confused voice.

"I can tell what you are thinking just by looking at your face. You forget that when we were young, you were clumsy and un-suited to be a ninja, but you left us behind through your hard work and determination to show everyone that you were more than capable of being a Shinobi. As we grew older you left me and Orochimaru far behind not only in skill and knowledge but also in strength of heart and mind. Even though you are a pervert and nuisance at times, your commitment to this village and to your friends have never faltered, heck you still believe that you can turn Orochimaru from the path he took so long ago. Oh and from pervert it reminded me that if YOU TURN NARUTO INTO A PERVERT LIKE YOU I WILL PERSONALLY TAKE UP THE CRUSADE OF KILLING YOU, IS THAT CLEAR?" shouted Tsunade as she glared at Jiraiya. The glare made Jiraiya shudder and promise profusely that he will keep that in his mind.

"Now go, there are only a few moments left before sunrise, I want you to be out of this village before the sun's first rays fall on Konoha and remember that this is a secret only among us. Farewell my student, I will see you and young Naruto as a man." ordered the Sandaime Hokage to Jiraiya, who in turn nodded to his sensei and his former teammate before leaping out of the window.

"Do you think I took the right decision in sending the boy with Jiraiya?" asked Sarutobi turning to look at his other pupil.

"Yes, not only will Jiraiya treat him like his own grandson, Jiraiya will also make sure that he has the same morals and principles that Minato had. Secondly Jiraiya is the most capable Shinobi in this village, who can train Naruto. Thirdly, this responsibility would have been too much for me to handle and gambling and drinking seem to have negative impacts on kids these days." said Tsunade before leaping out of the window as well. Sarutobi sweat dropped at her response before his face turned sour as he turned towards the still unconscious ANBU on the floor.


	2. Homecoming

Homecoming:

15 years later

"Damn paperwork," thought Tsunade as she pulled another document towards herself from the mountain of papers sitting on her desk. It has been exactly two years since the death of her sensei and the Sandaime Hokage of the village by none other than his own student Orochimaru. Not only that but this also had to be the day that Sakura took a leave because she mourned this day for that damned Sasuke Uchiha. It wasn't helping that the rebuilding of Konoha was still not complete from the attack two years ago, now the village was in debt and the fire daimyo was blaming it on Konoha's incompetence that he had to pay the other villages because of this disaster. Tsunade gave a loud sigh before leaning back and pulling out a bottle of sake and a cup.

Thoughts of another blonde came to her mind, "he must be old enough to be a chuunin now, but Minato was a tokubetsu jounin at the age of thirteen and was on his way to learning senjutsu from the sages in Mount Myouboku. She also remembered when Tsunade, Jiraiya, and Orochimaru were young and how Jiraiya constantly complained about how hard senjutsu training was and that why was he the only one that sensei chose to go through with it. Only years later did they realize that senjutsus training worked only for those that kept on trying until they got the desired results because it was based on trial and error methods until the chakra system found the right amount of mixing to allow person to take on sage mode. Most people did not find the exact right mixing and ended up being like Jiraiya who morphed a little bit himself when going into sage mode. The same went for Minato, his chakra reserves were too vast to find the exact mixing either. As far as Tsunade knew, nobody other than the toad sages of Mount Myouboku was able to find the exact mixing in the chakra composition. It was also rumored that with the exact composition sage mode would be much more powerful than the partial mode that Jiraiya or Minato could acquire; a full sage's prowess would be three to four times more powerful. Then again nobody had done it other than the fabled Sage of the six paths who was a master at just about every form of Shinobi arts there were.

"Where is the old pervert anyway, I need to know what information he gathered on Orochi-teme and this new Akatsuki group that were after all the tailed beasts and had already captured two jinchuurikis from different hidden villages, they are definitely composed of strong shinobis if they are able to just overpower jinchuurikis that have full control of their tailed beasts." Tsunade's trend of thoughts continued as she took another sip of sake. "Bah, why in the world did I agree to take this job, it sucks! Life was so much better when I could just gamble and drink all the time. No paperwork and no council trash to deal with, my luck really does suck sometimes." She groaned as she finished the rest of the Sake in one gulp and pored herself another cup.

The door to her office opened and a very red faced Shizune poked her face in and said "Jiraiya-sama is here to meet you, says he has two very important missions to turn in." Tsunade motioned for her to send him in and sighed very exasperatedly, "why does that old pervert have to flirt with girls that are a third his age? He should get the clue when he gets slapped around like that!"

"Tsunade hime, how is it going, gosh I haven't seen that lovely face in months." Said Jiraiya in his usual happy-go-lucky manner as he grabbed a chair and sat down looking the cleavage of her breasts. Tsunade thwacked him on his head with a chakra enhanced fist so that he would look at her face not her body.

"What do you want?" she said glaring at him as she pulled her robes closer to cover herself from the pervert's gaze, who knew what tales he was spinning in his head for the next installment of his famous Icha-Icha Paradise series.

"Why do you always take it the wrong way hime?" asked Jiraiya with a hurt expression on his face as he rubbed his head where Tsunade hit him.

Tsunade sighed before asking "I am really hoping you found something important from your spying network, Orochi-teme and this Akatsuki's growing threat is getting on my old nerves. I am getting very bad vibes from this new enemy. What do you have on them?"

Jiraiya's face turned serious instantly as he picked up the huge scroll he always wears on his back and laid it out on her desk. "Well, Akatsuki is indeed comprised of extremely powerful and dangerous shinobis. This time my research was extensive and thorough, all the members of the Akatsuki are comprised of SS-ranked criminals who have the highest bounties on their heads. All of them except one person, their leader Pein. He is apparently not from any hidden village because he has no bounty on his head. There is one thing that even makes me weary of him." Jiraiya looked up from his scroll to Tsunade's questioning face. "He beat Hanzo single-handedly, took his palace, and made it into the head quarters for all Akatsuki operations."

"He is that strong?" asked Tsunade her eyes wide, even they weren't able to take Hanzo down together the three sannin of the leaf, Jiraiya nodded. "What other information do you have?"

"There is also a leaf shinobi in the Akatsuki, a ninja who has a very, very high bounty on his head." Jiraiya's explicit explanation told her that she should have guessed who it was but she could not name anyone that she thought was from Konoha.

"Who is it, be clear with me." ordered the Godaime Hokage.

Jiraiya took a deep breath and said "Itachi Uchiha."

"DAMN, ANOTHER UCHIHA THAT BETRAYED THE VILLAGE! I AM DONE WITH THAT DAMNED CLAN!" Tsunade fumed with anger as she heard that the only other living Uchiha has also turned against his own village.

"Calm down hime, there is more, my spy network is working more efficiently now. They have also figured out that Pein is not the true brains behind the Akatsuki operations; he is just a leader figure. The actual brain behind the operation is someone else, someone even stronger than Pein. My network is still working on the identity of this person but he had eluded all efforts of us uncovering his identity with masterful art and deception."

"Even stronger than Pein? How strong is this ninja?" asked Tsunade, awe and concern evident in her voice.

"If my guess is correct, he is probably on par with the Shodaime Hokage, Hashirama Senju." Jiraiya stood up as he headed to the window so he could look out the window towards the rest of Konoha, "this foreshadows bad news hime, and there are troubling times up ahead for Konoha. You are their leader therefore I think you should start preparing right now."

"Yes, I wish they were here, they are far more capable to be the leader of Konoha than I am." Tsunade said somberly as she looked at the portraits of the Sandaime and the Yondaime Hokages.

"Do not mourn hime, there is still hope, and that is what my second mission submission is for." Said Jiraiya and there was something unreadable in his voice as he looked at the Hokage mountain.

"Does it relate to Akatsuki or Orochi-teme in any way? If it doesn't then leave the report on my table and go I have a lot of work pending that needs to be done by the end of this week and I am well behind by more than a week." Tsunade went back behind her desk and sat down.

"I cannot have a formal report written down for this assignment, you already know that." Jiraiya said as he turned towards her with a small smile on his face. Tsunade recognized that smile really well as this was not the lecherous smile that Jiraiya had on when he had perverted thoughts, this smile was the smile of a Shinobi who was looking forward to good things happening in the future. This was Jiraiya thinking that there was still hope that not all is yet lost even though it looks bleak and dark.

"What do you need to tell me?" Tsunade asked in a very serious voice, she had a frown on her face that said that if-the-matter-is-important-you-better-tell-me-fast.

"The will of fire lives on Tsunade, have faith in the new generation that is growing in Konoha. Today, as I was walking through Konoha, I felt the chakra signatures of all the young shinobis of Konoha, and they are not to be underestimated. Their will of fire is stronger than all the generations that came before; this generation has produced quite a group. All of them talented and dedicated to the Konoha, and all of them ready to lay down their lives without hesitation for the village if necessary, except for obvious few exceptions." Jiraiya said laughing inwardly as he saw a tick appear on Tsunade's forehead.

"Damn it Jiraiya, that's a nice speech but it is not getting us anywhere, just tell me what you need to and leave!" shouted Tsunade angrily and glared at the pervert for taking her time unnecessarily.

"Okay, okay," Jiraiya raised his hands before Tsunade decided to do something too drastic "My second mission is that Naruto is finally able to defend himself so I am returning him to Konoha as is his birthright."

Tsunade's eyes widened at this announcement. She had not seen Naruto in two years. The only time she had seen him in her life was when Jiraiya and Naruto had gone to retrieve her and make her the Godaime Hokage of the Hidden Leaf, and even in that small period she had taken a liking to that boy's spirit and even given him her necklace as a sign that she trusted him as much as she trusted Nawaki and Dan. "So what is the gaki like? I probably can't call him a gaki anymore can I?" asked Tsunade with a genuine smile on her face as she remembered the Naruto that had taken her bet and had mastered Rasengan in a week.

"Yes, calling him a gaki will be a misnomer as he has grown quite a bit since you saw him last. His skill and strength as a shinobi has also grown in unimaginable proportions. The boy was truly meant to be a shinobi and is becoming more and more like his old man every day." Jiraiya said pride evident in his expression and voice.

"Yes tell me about him, even though I have met him, I know nothing about his skill as a shinobi. In fact, the time he fought Kabuto, he only used Rasengan to beat him, he did not show any of his other skills." Tsunade asked with much interest as to see how Minato's legacy has grown up.

Jiraiya put his index finger to his chin and thought for a few minutes before turning back to the window, "Since he is of the Uzumaki clan, his body has an affinity towards tai jutsu. I trained him with weights since he was four but then I had the sages of Mount Myouboku train in the arts the frog katas but he quickly mastered them. So I had him trained in some other forms until I met up with Might Gai, he gave me more than a few scrolls on Tai jutsus and their many forms, he also gave two of his most priceless fighting styles, to fight a man looking at his body but not his eyes. This form of Tai jutsu is very effective against any ninjas with ocular jutsus or two of Konoha's most powerful clans. Yet, and here's the kick; he being also from the Namikaze clan gave his body an affinity towards ninjutsus as well. His ability to understand the workings of a jutsu is phenomenal, and with his training method, he can master just about any jutsus in a matter of days, and the level he masters senjutsu is unbelievable. In addition to that, the Kyuubi also gives him a lot of advantages. His ability to heal is extra-ordinary, he can heal his wounds in hours that would take a regular man days, if not weeks, his stamina is incredible, and his natural chakra reserves are about twice the size of Minato's. Another important aspect is that even though Naruto might look like he is a simple minded guy; it would be a grave error to underestimate his skills as a strategist as he can come up with complex analytical tactics on the spur of the moment. He developed this ability from a young age as he studied under the sages of Mount Myouboku. He also has the toad summons contract and has become quite close with Gamakichi, Gamabunta's first-born son and probably the heir to his position. He also became a subordinate of Gamabunta, and for some reason Gamabunta shows him even more respect than he gives me (Tsunade smirked at that). Anyway, Naruto is not a genjutsu type, he is in fact quite bad at them and training his mind is exceptionally hard for him because of the Kyuubi. But I have personally given him extensive training in how to break even the toughest of Genjutsus and he has become quite good at recognizing them and breaking out of them. I would even go as far as to say any Genjutsu user will be at a disadvantage against Naruto because once he breaks the Genjutsu, he will flat-out overpower his opponent and take him down. In a nut shell Naruto is a power hitter, he takes his opponents and simply annihilates them, but he is also a genius as when required he has shown excellence in strategy and analytical understanding of any battle situation. Heck he even completed his Father's two most prized techniques, something even the Yondaime could not do himself."

Jiraiya turned back towards Tsunade only to see that her eyes were just about ready to pop out of their sockets. "H-How strong is he? Oh and did you say he mastered senjutsu?" stammered out Tsunade, this description sounded more like a kage level ninja than a chuunin to her. Either Jiraiya is elaborating a little too much because nobody should be as strong as this at the age of fifteen, or she had seriously under estimated Naruto's potential

Jiraiya again thought for a few seconds before looking back at the Hokage Mountain, "Yeah, he is a legend in Myouboku. He is the only person in the last century to mix his chakra with nature chakra in perfect proportion, no morphing at all when he goes into sage mode. If I have to give him a rank based on the ninja ranking system, he can easily make the kage level. In a straight out fight he can go toe to toe against me unless we go into sage mode. In sage mode I stand no chance against him. At the age of eight he was already at the level of a high chuunin, plus his experience in the number of missions he has completed outranks any of Konoha's chuunin and a few of the jounins. His assassination and espionage skills are on par with Kakashi's when he was the ANBU squad captain, and that was four years ago. He has got the guts to even threaten the Kyuubi. Right now Naruto can control up to six tails of the Kyuubi's chakra while remaining in full control of his emotions and his body. Not only that, but Naruto's ability to learn jutsus surprised even me. The guy can take any A-rank to S-rank jutsu and master it in less than a week. His mastery of seals is on par with me if not better and his mastery over Fuuton and Suiton techniques are also top class. He took the whole library in Mount Myouboku of fuuton and suiton related techniques and just memorized and mastered them in about two years (Tsunade sweat-dropped at that). However his greatest achievements are completing his father's techniques. He was able to channel fuuton chakra into the Rasengan and came out with SS-ranked jutsu, the Rasenshuriken. This technique is so fierce that it damages the user's hand, eventually Naruto learned to throw it so he can use it safely but this jutsu is a one-hit kill. It attacks the opponent in the cellular level and decimates them, not much of the opponent is left when the jutsu is done. He has increased the control over Hiraishin considerably. Where Minato used partner seals, one on his Kunai, and the other he had on himself, Naruto has modified it so that the partner seals are not necessary. He just has one seal on himself that takes him to exactly where he was looking or of what place he is thinking of as he activates Hiraishin, there is no more need for the kunais. I took quite a bit of lecturing from me to stop Naruto from popping himself here and taking a look at the village, since he has made it his dream to become the Hokage of Konoha. In other words, Naruto is probably the strongest ninja in Konoha right now. I believe that this mission was a complete successes, don't you?"

Tsunade blinked but kept staring at Jiraiya for a full minute before Jiraiya coughed loudly to rouse her from her chain of thoughts. "When Sarutobi sensei said 'bring him when he can defend himself' I don't think he meant it on this level. It does not make my life any easier that you have just brought a ninja with no history who can probably wipe the floor with me if he wanted (Jiraiya smirked at that). So, does he know about his heritage?"

"No, all he knows is that he is from Konoha and that I found him after the fourth Hokage sealed the bijuu in him and took him out of the village to give special training. When he was younger he once asked me about his parents but did not ask after I told him that he will know everything in due time." Jiraiya was looking at the Fourth's picture, "Personally I think we should wait a couple more years before letting him know, but you are the Hokage, I leave this up to you."

"Yes, on this matter I agree. So where is he anyway?" asked Tsunade looking towards the door to her office.

"Oh just checking out the village right now, I gave him two hours free time, he will report here in about half an hour later." Jiraiya then looked at Tsunade; "It will also give me some time to discuss Konoha's standings with the other hidden villages of the shinobi nations."

With Naruto

As soon as Jiraiya walked off towards the Hokage tower, Naruto took to the rooftops. He was finally in the village where he was born. Jiraiya had told him a lot about the village, but being there first hand was something totally different. He had scoured the library in Mount Myouboku clean by reading every book he found on Konoha, starting from the history, all the way to the current Fire Daimyo's son's name. He knew every jutsu that was invented by the ninjas of Konoha; he knew everything there was to know about the clans of Konoha and all the blood line limits. Unbeknownst to Jiraiya, he had even taken special training from Paa Fukasaku and Maa Shima and learned how to counter all the blood line limits in Konoha. As he jumped onto another rooftop, he saw a very beautiful pink-haired teen sitting forlornly on a bench in the garden area of the Ninja academy. There was also blonde girl of similar age, sitting next to her and she seemed to be giving her some sort of lecture. They both looked like they were his age so he jumped down and slowly made his way towards them.

As neared them he heard the blonde girl speaking "…been two years now Sakura, you should figure it out that he is not coming back any more." The blonde girl said sympathetically, "Today all the people from our graduating year are going to a dinner party, you have to come, okay it is a tradition and you have already missed last year's so you have to go to this one." Naruto was very close to them but it looked like they were in the middle of a conversation so he moved to a side and leaned against the fence looking at the street. "Hey, don't you know this is a shinobi only area! No civilians allowed, get lost," shouted the blonde girl very rudely at him.

"Oh no, you misunderstand, I am a shinobi," Naruto said as he smiled at the blonde.

"Oh yeah, where is your head band, come to think of it I haven't even seen you before, who are you?" asked Ino, she quickly turned back to Sakura and gave her a smirk, this guy was clearly bluffing so he could take a look at the ninja academy. She was going to pull a little trick on him.

"My name is Naruto Uzumaki, what is yours?" asked Naruto as he extended his hand for a hand shake.

"My name is Ino Yamanaka. I am a chuunin of Konoha, nice to meet you. Hey want me to show you a real jutsu?" asked Ino in a too-sweet voice.

Naruto already had alarms going off in his head but outwardly he remained calm and gave a smile to Ino before saying "I would love to see one."

Ino gave him a smile and put her hands on both sides of her head, faced him and closed her eyes. Naruto immediately tensed a he figured out what was going on. "MIND TRANSFER TECHNIQUE!" shouted Ino. But Naruto was ready because he just swayed back like a tree in a breeze and the mind technique passed him before returning back to Ino's body. Ino blinked as she opened her eyes, before asking Sakura, "Why did it not work?"

Sakura pointed at Naruto and said, "H-He dodged it, like he was expecting you to use that."

"Of course I knew she was going to use the Yamanaka's blood line jutsu, she put her hands on both sides of her head, it was easy to predict after that," said Naruto. "What do they think I am, a fool?" thought Naruto.

"Okay, so you know a little bit about the Shinobi arts, but that is not going to fool us, you are not going inside the academy, you understand!" Ino said angrily, as she pointed at the main building in the academy.

"Jeez, calm down. I don't need to go in there anyway, I am past genin level. My mentor says that I am Jounin level, so you see I am way ahead of what the ninja academy teaches." Naruto said in an earnest voice and gave Ino a small smile.

"Jounin level eh, so you are saying that you are a better ninja than even I am? How about a spar huh? Surely a high and mighty ninja like you can easily beat a mere chuunin like me right?" asked Ino in a sarcastic voice. Naruto kept his face neutral even though he clearly realized the sarcasm in her voice. Truth be told, he had had enough of this blonde's attitude. It was time he showed her that he was not lying at all, being friendly with these type of people were only possible after you showed them that you were better than they are. Naruto nodded and gestured for her to lead the way.

As the three young shinobis walked towards the nearest empty training ground, Sakura looked at the blonde stranger curiously. "Why are you looking at me like that?" Naruto asked.

"Well you have not already run off, that is a new height even for civilians. Do you truly think that you can take on Ino? She has got anger issues you know; when she is angry she loses control. It has never ended well if you fight an angry Ino. My advice is you take the first chance and escape, or else you will end up in the hospital for sure." Sakura said, in a pleading voice as she knew that not only will Tsunade punish Ino for assaulting a civilian, she will also punish Sakura for being there but not stopping the fight as a responsible Chuunin should.

"Look ladies, I am not kidding around when I am saying that I am a ninja. If you think I am lying then check my chakra signature, you will see that I have been training my chakra since I was very young. Heck, I have wanted to be a ninja since I came to know of the meaning of the word, and even after this if you don't believe me, that's fine, because I will fight. Do not say later that I didn't warn you already."

Ino continued walking, showing complete indifference to Naruto's words. Sakura, however, thought he was not lying. When she looked at him closely, he showed considerable amount of muscle that a lot of Tai jutsu specialists had, his gait had a natural grace, and his body was like a coiled spring, as if ready for any kind of danger at all times. If this guy was not a ninja, he was still a warrior of some kind; no civilian she knew had the training and discipline to develop an anatomical excellence such as Naruto's. As the trio neared the Hokage Mountain, they reached one of the empty training grounds. It was a circular clearing surrounded by a dense canopy of trees. Ino jumped over the gate and opened it from inside so that Naruto and Sakura could enter.

"Ino, I really don't think this is a good-" Sakura started saying but was interrupted by Ino.

"No Sakura, these kinds of guys need a lesson in manners, and he obviously did not learn it when we tried to explain it to him nicely, now he is going to find out the hard way." Ino was dead set on making this blonde cookie realize his mistake, he will think twice before being arrogant ever again. "Anytime you are ready."

Naruto took a Tai jutsu stance and wiggled his index finger letting Ino know he was ready for her. Ino simply charged at Naruto with the Tai jutsu style that Asuma Sarutobi taught her. Her low aimed kick did not connect as Naruto suddenly disappeared from her field of vision. She quickly looked around to see him standing casually behind her. She took her stance again when she felt excruciating pain on the back of her shoulder blades, and lost consciousness. Sakura could not believe what she saw, one minute Naruto was standing in front of Ino, but the next second he was behind her. Not only that, in that small gap he had created a shadow clone and had hidden it behind one of the trees. Sakura rushed to Ino's side to run a simple diagnostic and see if she was alright. "Don't worry, I just hit a pressure point, she will wake up in a couple of minutes." Naruto was looking at Sakura's glowing hands intently before concluding that she had some amount of medical training. It was expected since the Godaime Hokage was Tsunade; medical knowledge in Konoha's ninjas must have increased considerably. Ino stirred her hands and rubbed her shoulder before bolting straight up.

"What happened?" she asked looking at Sakura with a deep frown on her face.

"Nothing, a civilian just knocked you out cold in less than a minute." Sakura said sarcastically as she put an emphasis on the word 'civilian'. Ino's face flushed red but she quickly looked away from Sakura only to see Naruto looking at her. He quickly put his hands up to show he meant no harm.

"Look, I am sorry; I guess I should have elaborated before just going with your idea of a fight. You see I am an orphan from Konoha and for some reason the Sandaime Hokage saw it fit to just let me grow up and train outside the village. I don't know much about the reason behind it but I am sure he had a pretty good one for sending me off for so long. So I lived and trained under Master Jiraiya. You guys probably know him as one of the three sannin, and the current Hokage's old teammate." Naruto knew that he had humiliated the Yamanaka enough and now just wanted to be a friend, so he put all his animosities away and gave her a genuine smile.

Both the kunoichis eyes went wide at Naruto's explanation. He was trained under one of the Sannins for even longer than Sakura had. They both knew from personal experience that training under the Sannins for any period of time is brutal, but the results were astounding. Sakura had come a long way in just two years from a very ordinary genin to one of Konoha's best combat medics. If Naruto has trained under Jiraiya for most of his life, then he was far beyond their abilities to handle. Sakura concluded that he was probably as strong as Neji, Shino, or Shikamaru, as they were the youngest three from Sakura's year to have gained the status of Jounins. Ino nodded, and to Sakura's pleasant surprise, she said, "I am sorry, I forced you into that kind of situation just because of a little misunderstanding. I hope we can become good friends in the future." Ino quickly extended her hand to Naruto who shook it showing his desire to do the same.

"So, uh, how old are you guys?" asked Naruto rubbing the back of his head. "I am fifteen, so I am guessing that all the people my age are probably chuunins and jounins by now, hopefully I won't start as a genin that will be embarrassing." Naruto moaned making the girls giggle at his childish thoughts.

"We are also fifteen, and your assumption is quite right. I, Ino, Lee, Tenten, Kiba, Hinata, and Choji are all chuunins. The only Jounins from our graduating year is Shikamaru, Neji, and Shino, you will probably meet them all tonight if you show up at the gathering we are having. It is just the people our age, and since you are also exactly our age you should come, it will be fun." Sakura said as the three headed out of the training ground and walked back towards the market district.

"Yeah sure, it sounds good. Only one problem, I don't know where it will be or what time it will start." Naruto looked the time and was heading towards the Hokage tower; it was almost time for him to meet baa-chan.

"No problem, me and Ino can come and take you there, where are you staying right now?" asked Sakura as she found this stranger very interesting, and he was not like Kiba either, always trying to flirt with the girls or trying to get them to date him.

"We will be staying in the hotel that is right next to the Hokage mansion, you know in the east of the market district." Said Naruto pointing the in the general direction of the Hotel they booked their rooms in. "It's almost time for me to report in to the Hokage right now. Are you guys coming with me or do you have some-place else to be?"

"I got a free day because Asuma sensei did not feel like training today nor do we have any missions until this Friday, and Sakura took a leave today, so we can keep you company for a little longer." Ino said as they reached the bottom of the Hokage tower. "So what is going to happen, are you just going to get a Konoha head band? That is it? Will you be a Chuunin after that? Boy, you sure are lucky; I and Sakura had to go through the Chuunin exams twice before we became Chuunins, and the forest is brutal."

"Well, Jiraiya and the Sages tested me frequently in Mount Myouboku to keep tabs on my improvement. They said that I was past Chuunin level when the tested me at the age of eleven. Then, according to the sages, I made Jounin a little before my fourteenth birthday. They thought I was excelling as a Shinobi, but I kept on training and training because I knew that Konoha was among the strongest in all the Shinobi villages and by the time it was my fifteenth birthday I made it high level Jounin." Naruto was talking to the Kunoichis as he walked up the final set of stairs. "Shizune nee-chan, how are you doing?" asked Naruto as he saw the Hokage's assistant behind the reception.

"Naruto! I am fine. How are you? Gosh you have grown quite a bit since we last met." Shizune walked up to Naruto and gave him a quick hug before she went back to the reception and wrote his name down.

"I am doing fine; Ero-sannin has been training me constantly for the last year and a half. I am far stronger than I was two years ago when I fought that Hebi-sannin Orochimaru, and his pal Kabuto." Naruto said casually surprising both Sakura and Ino.

"Naruto, how do you know Shizune-chan?" asked Ino as he turned back towards them.

"I went on a mission with Ero-sannin to find Tsunade-Sama so that she could take the spot as the Hokage of Konoha after the death of the Sandaime Hokage. That is when I first met Shizune nee-chan; she was Tsunade-Sama's assistant back then too."

"Kid, how many times do I have to tell you to stop calling me that, especially in front of such beautiful ladies?" Jiraiya said from the door of the Hokage's office as he looked at Sakura and Ino.

"Yeah, yeah, keep your perverted thoughts to yourself," said Naruto like he had already had this discussion a hundred times before. Tsunade and Shizune both smirked at Naruto's attitude towards Jiraiya's perverseness.

He walked into the Hokage's office looking around and taking in the room's elaborate décor and exquisite furniture.

Tsunade was a little taken back by the sheer growth in Naruto physique. Naruto was at least half a foot taller than he was the last time she met him. He stood almost head to head with Jiraiya; he had also become much more muscular and moved more like a predator than the clumsy teen she remembered. The most striking feature though was his face. It was almost exactly like Minato's with the obvious whisker marks on his cheeks. Where Minato's face had a refined and gentle look, Naruto's was rougher and more angular, giving his face a wolfish appearance.

"So Naruto, I see you have met two of my students already. What do you think of Konoha, I assume you have been looking around a little bit?" asked Tsunade.

"Well that was the plan but the only place I got a good look at was the Hokage Mountain before I met Ino and Sakura and…there was a little misunderstanding between us, but now it is all cleared out."

"Sakura can you elaborate on this misunderstanding that Naruto mentioned?" ordered Tsunade as she looked at Ino. She knew Ino was a little impatient and hot tempered, and had gotten into fights with many civilians of Konoha.

"Hai, Ino was trying to cheer me up and was inviting me to the gathering that the people from my graduating year are having tonight when she saw Naruto standing by the fence and was looking at the Ninja Academy. She immediately mistook him for a civilian and tried to play a trick on him which failed. When Naruto denied being a civilian, it only angered her more and she challenged him to a duel. Naruto went with me and Ino to training ground in the south western side of Konoha and they had a fight." Sakura was trying to minimize the situation to its bare minimum so that Ino didn't go into probation again. That could take a very bad effect on her career as a shinobi.

"So, how did it go?" asked Tsunade obviously interested to see how Naruto matched up against the shinobis his age.

"If you call getting knocked out in under a minute without being able to land a single hit on the opponent you are fighting, then yes Naruto and I had a fight." Ino was staring at the floor as she admitted how easily she was defeated by Naruto.

"Wow," thought Tsunade "he is really as strong as Jiraiya says he is."

"Hey, listen there is no reason to feel bad if you were defeated by Naruto, he was meant to be trained to be a special ninja. That is why he grew up outside the village." Jiraiya said surprising Naruto, Sakura, and Ino.

"Really?" asked Ino, as she felt reassured that she was not totally useless as a shinobi.

"Sure, how many Konoha nins do you know that grew up outside of Konoha? Think about that."

"Hey Ino, let's go, I have to tell you something. Naruto we will be at your hotel at about seven, see ya later and don't forget to wear formal clothes." Said Sakura as she and Ino walked out of the office.

"So, baa-chan are you going to give me a head band or do I have to start off as a genin?" asked Naruto as he looked at the portraits of all the Hokages of Konoha, and as usual his eyes stopped on the Yondaime's. Something about the man always appealed to him but he could never point out what it was that nagged him whenever he laid eyes on the picture of the youngest man to ever become the Hokage of Konoha.

"Not so easy gaki. You have to prove what you are made of before you get the headband and I have to determine what level you are." Tsunade was smirking; she already had a very good opponent for him in her mind.

"What do I have to do?" asked Naruto, he knew the Godaime Hokage's smirk and he was already self conscious.

"A spar, just to see how good you are, nothing else. Your opponent is going to be Shikamaru Nara." Tsunade figured that brains were the best defense against brawn so; she decided to see how good Naruto truly was when he faced someone as smart as Shikamaru.

"Nara huh? I know the best defense against them. Surprise is the only option to take them down quickly and efficiently." Naruto had always paid attention to what Fukasaku Paa had said, and he had tried them before and they have always worked in every situation.

"Ya, okay let's do this quickly, I have to go somewhere to meet one of my informants. It is information on Sunagakure; it looks like Akatsuki is going to make a move on their Kazekage." Jiraiya whispered to Tsunade who nodded before she, Naruto Jiraiya, and Shizune walked out of the Hokage tower and towards one of the training grounds. As they moved towards the training ground Naruto saw a spiky and black haired boy lying on the ground, and staring at the clouds. Along with him was a man who seemed to be a chain smoker, a big brown haired boy, and also Ino who waved at him.

"So you are Naruto Uzumaki, huh?" asked the guy who was smoking a cigarette. He looked at Naruto closely before adding, "I can see why Ino was beaten by you."

"Oh, that was nothing; it was all a stupid misunderstanding." Naruto said with a smile as he rubbed the back of his head.

"All right Shikamaru, this is your opponent Naruto," said Tsunade as he she went in the middle of the training ground.

Shikamaru slowly got up and muttered "Troublesome."

"Stereotypical of all the Nara clan," thought Naruto as he got ready for the spar.

"All right, to proctor this match I have called Genma, he is an expert and he proctored all the matches in the past few Chuunin exams." Tsunade waved and a man with a bandanna style head band jumped down from one of the trees.

"Hi guys," he said and beckoned the two fighters to face each other, "All weapons and ninja tools are allowed along with the use of soldier pills, animals, bugs, and other ninja accomplices. All forms of jutsus are allowed except for the ones that can kill instantly, there are no limit to the use of unique jutsus and blood line limits. Is that understood?"

Both Naruto and Shikamaru nodded.

"All right, BEGIN!" Genma moved out of the way of both the fighters.

"Kage mane no jutsu," shouted Shikamaru and bound Naruto in his jutsu. He quickly put his hand in his holster and pulled out a kunai. Naruto mimicked his movements and also pulled out a kunai. "Now you realize what my jutsu is doing, so I will ask you if you will give up right now or not. Move your eyes to the right if you want to."

"Wow, nice jutsu, too bad I knew about it from the beginning, and I also know that you Naras think like ten moves ahead every time. So the best way to take you guys down is by surprise. About twenty more Narutos jumped down from the trees, and the one that was under the Kage mane jutsu disappeared in cloud of smoke.

"Atta boy," thought Jiraiya as he looked over to Asuma Sarutobi, only to see his mouth hanging open and his cigarette was lying on the ground. "Looks like someone is surprised," said Jiraiya with a chuckle.

Shikamaru quickly pulled back the Kage mane jutsu and raised his hand, "I forfeit." He said in his usual bored voice as he walked over to Genma.

"Lazy ass," thought both Naruto and Tsunade. She knew it was a big risk to ask Shikamaru to take a spar seriously, but she didn't think he would give up this fast.

"Well gaki, looks like you are a shinobi of Konoha. Let's go back to my office so we can fill out the paperwork and you will get the headband."

"I will see you at the party, okay. Oh, and this is my other teammate Choji and that is my sensei Asuma Sarutobi." Said Ino pointing at Choji and then at Asuma. Choji waved at him.

"I have been looking forward to meet you after Ino told me about you. She says you are from Konoha but you grew up outside. I would like to know about your travels." Choji sounded like an excited baby, but Naruto concluded that he was probably a kind of person with a golden heart, something very rare among shinobis.

"Okay guys, I'll meet you in the evening then," Naruto, Tsunade, Shizune, and Jiraiya sushined back to the Hokage's office and Shizune pulled out a file with his name on it from the cabinet and handed it to Tsunade. "I believe that the Sandaime Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi had it made covertly and left it with Tsunade-sama. Finally Naruto's name will be added to the archives as a shinobi of Konoha. Welcome home Naruto." Shizune smiled and then went back to the reception.

"Boy, sensei thought about everything didn't he?" chuckling at himself Jiraiya opened the folder, he quickly scanned it and the handed it to Naruto. He looked at Tsunade and said "Looks like there is nothing amiss, so let's get this business over with, I need to get going."

"Naruto sign the forms where your signature is required, and I will get the head bands there are choose whichever style you like." Naruto quickly signed the papers and then looked at the headbands that were laid out in front of him. He quickly chose the one with the extra long strap and tied it to his forehead. "Now, we can talk about the rankings, judging from today's display, you are definitely a Jounin, but I know nothing about your abilities when you are in a team, so I am going to put you in as a Tokubetsu Jounin, and then send you out on team missions. If you are just as good a team worker, then you are fully qualified to be a Jounin of Konoha. Right now I have no missions for you, but be here tomorrow, I will see what I can dig up for you."

"Okay, hey do you mind if I borrow nee-chan for an hour or so?" asked Naruto, he had no idea about fashion or knew where to buy clothes so he figured Shizune could really help him out.

"I am glad you asked, yes take her out of this cooped up office for some time, she has been really stressed the past few weeks, just make sure she comes back to report the day's work."

"'Kay, see you later Ero-sannin, baa-chan," Naruto ran out of the Hokage office as he heard loud curses coming from both Tsunade and Jiraiya. "Shizune nee-chan I need your help can you help me?"

"I wish I could but I have a lot of work left." Shizune sighed as she looked back to the files that still needed to be sorted.

"Yeah, I know but baa-chan said you really need some fresh air so let's go," Naruto grabbed both of Shizune's hands and literally dragged a thrashing and screaming Shizune out of the Hokage tower.

Naruto let go of her hands and she folded them with an angry pout on her face, "That was rude Naruto."

"Ya, sorry but I really need your help to pick out some good clothes for tonight's party. Heck I don't even know what formal clothes look like much less buy them and wear them. So please help me out!" Naruto had his hands folded and was pleading to Shizune. Shizune couldn't help but laugh at Naruto's antics.

"Okay, let's go. You wanted to buy formal clothes right?"

**There all done with the first chapter. Hope you guys like it did not intend to make it this long but oh well. Next thing, can anyone explain to me what happened in Naruto's latest chapter? Did not get the crow part at all! **


	3. Party

The Party:

Sakura and Ino walked towards the inn where Naruto was staying. They had just met Temari, who was here on a mission to convey a request from Gaara to the Godaime Hokage of Konoha. They had both seen her with Shikamaru heading towards the gathering. As they neared the inn, Sakura's thoughts drifted towards the new stranger she met in the afternoon. She wondered what it would have been like if he grew up with them, maybe he would also have been a part of team seven, like Sasuke and Sai. She was jostled from her thoughts when Ino nudged her arm.

"What?" asked Sakura.

"Do you know what room he is staying in?" Ino was looking at the hallway lined with doors.

"No, let's just wait in the lobby; I am sure he will be out in no time." Sakura headed towards the lobby with a few empty chairs.

"Hey, this place is packed, looks like there is going to be a lot of people here for the chuunin exams this time too," said Ino as she looked at the amount people waiting in the lobby. Sakura nodded in agreement, usually the lobby is empty but today there were only a few chairs empty.

"I think we should ask the receptionist which roo-" Ino began saying when she saw Sakura staring in a different direction, her eyes fixed and her mouth slightly open. Ino also turned to see what she was staring at and was stunned too. Naruto was turning the corner where the hallway with the rooms connected to the lobby. He looked like a completely different person from when they met him earlier. It looked like he had shaved his face which showed a three-day beard earlier, it looked like he trimmed his hair down a bit, but the most eye-catching change were his clothes and the Konoha head band. He was not wearing the gray jacket and the black pants from earlier, instead he was wearing an orange robe with black flames, a black full sleeved shirt that was tucked into off white pants, which were being well complimented with the shin length black sandals. He looked around the lobby before his eyes settled on Ino and Sakura; he smiled and headed their way.

"So where is the party?" he asked shaking both Sakura and Ino out of their awe stricken stare.

"O-oh yeah, let's go," said Sakura as she quickly turned away towards the exit. "So Naruto, did you buy those clothes in Konoha?" asked Sakura as they made their way towards the food court. "Huh? Oh yeah, Shizune-chan took me to this huge shinobi store, they had everything you could think of, she chose these for me and Ero-sannin paid for it."

"Ooh! Did you go to the Shadow Armor! I have always wanted to buy clothes from there but my parents always deny saying that the place is over prized." Ino squealed as she clasped her hands and stared at Naruto with puppy dog eyes.

"Uh… ha ha. These clothes are sure expensive but the Kunoichi clothes were amazing, you should definitely go there," said Naruto rubbing the back of his head as he tried to encourage Ino.

"Oh please, don't get her started on shopping, she can talk about that for hours, can we just hurry up and get to the party," Sakura said in an exasperated voice as they neared the food court.

"Oh whatever, not like you were not bragging about that new Kimono that you are wearing." Ino said as she put a pout on her face.

"But that's because it's a gift!" said Sakura in a flustered voice as her face flushed crimson.

"And who gave it to you?" asked Ino in a mischievous voice.

"A guy at the infirmary said it was a thank you gift for taking care of his injured leg." Sakura said tentatively.

"Uh-huh, so he gave one to Tsunade and one to Shizune too cause they were the ones that helped with the success of the operation right?" asked Ino with a smirk on her face.

"N-no, he just gave one to me." Sakura had a deep blush on her face as she said that.

"Soooo what does that tell you?" Ino was really starting to make Sakura uncomfortable; all of this was direct hints from the guy that he might like her.

"Hey is that where the party is going to be?" interjected Naruto as he pointed at the huge pavilion where people were starting to gather.

"I am going to look for Sai, why don't you help him get acquainted with the others?" Ino vanished before Sakura could respond.

"So shall we?" asked Naruto as he held his hand out. Sakura was a little taken aback but when she looked at Naruto, she saw a genuine smile and a chance at friendship. She tentatively took his hand as she led him into the pavilion.

"Hey Sakura is that the new guy everyone is talking about?" Kiba, as boisterous as ever, came over to the duo as he sized Naruto up and gave him a smirk.

"Yes, Naruto this is Kiba Inuzuka, he is a member of the genin group team eight with Hinata Hyuuga and Shino Aburame. Kiba this is Naruto Uzumaki."

"Hey, I suppose you have a pet canine right? What's his name?" asked Naruto as he looked around.

"Yeah, Akamaru is in the kennels back at the Inuzuka compound resting, we just got back from a mission today. Wait how did you know I have a pet?" Kiba was quite surprised at Naruto's knowledge of their clan.

"Oh I know quite a bit about all the clans and blood line limits that are from Konoha. After all I was bound to come back, I am from Konoha as well." Naruto was trying to judge Kiba just like Kiba was judging Naruto, only in a more subtle and intuitive manner. His skills at reading chakra signatures were first-class and it helped him determine what type and caliber of ninja the chakra belonged to. Kiba's chakra signature showed him to be mid-level chuunin, and belonged to the head of the Inuzuka clan. This guy was probably the future heir of his clan.

"Oh yeah, is that right? So what rank are you starting off as? Academy student or genin?" Kiba's behavior was starting to get on Sakura's nerves, as usual. Was he trying to pick a fight with Naruto, a ninja who was on par with Shikamaru?

"Hey, whoa man chill out! I'm just here to enjoy the party." Naruto had his hands up showing he meant no harm.

"Back off Inuzuka, he can beat you no problem." The Hyuuga prodigy, Neji just walked into the pavilion with Tenten and Lee.

"What do you want Hyuuga?" growled Kiba. Kiba and Neji never got along after Neji beat Kiba in the chuunin exams final round the first time.

"Just letting you know that he is Tokubetsu Jounin of this village and technically your senior officer. You better hope he does not make your life difficult." Neji said coolly as he looked at Naruto.

"Stop it both of you!" Tenten came in between the two quarreling teens just like she always did when there was a probability of a fight about to ensue between Neji and Kiba. "We are here to enjoy the day we graduated from the academy together, not renew old grudges."

"YOSH! Well said Temari-chan let us flourish our Flames of Youth for all to see!" Lee yelled, much to the dismay of his teammates. Naruto looked from Lee to Sakura, quietly trying to decipher the meaning of the green spandex clad teen's words.

"Oh yeah, he is a little weird, but he is the greatest tai-jutsu user among us, and one of the chuunins with the highest number of missions accomplished." Sakura whispered to Naruto, it was common knowledge in Konoha that anybody who did rounds around the village at five in the morning was definitely not in the right state of mind.

"Naruto? Is that you?" Temari had just walked into the pavilion with Shikamaru in tow.

"Temari! How are you? How are Kankuro and Gaara?" Naruto was pleasantly surprised to see Temari but he knew that Temari was the ambassador of Sunagakure, just as Shikamaru was the ambassador from Konohagakure.

"You two know each other?" asked Shikamaru looking between Temari and Naruto with a small frown on his face.

"Yeah, I went to Suna when I was twelve because my mentor thought it would be a good idea to see someone like me from a different village. So I went and met Gaara, he was quite different before." Naruto was keeping the fact that they were both Jinchuurikis because the people in Konoha did not know about him yet, and he did not know if they knew about Gaara.

"Yeah, because of him Gaara changed a lot and now the people of Suna see Gaara as a true leader even though he is a little young to be the Kazekage, he has the village's full support and respect." Temari knew how much Naruto had done for Gaara even though he did not know Gaara when they first met. This has brought all the three Suna siblings to be close friends with Naruto.

"Naruto, what a troublesome guy, knows everyone but the people from his own village," thought Shikamaru as Temari and Naruto hugged.

"Hello Sakura is that Uzumaki, Naruto. I heard he has just returned to Konoha after being trained by Jiraiya of the Sannin for approximately fifteen years." Sakura sweat dropped, Sai as usual has done his homework about the new ninja of Konoha.

"Yes Sai that is Naruto. Why don't you go talk to him?" Sakura and Ino both knew that Sai was the most awkward person socially. It was because he grew up in Root ANBU that he had no social skills whatsoever when he first joined Team seven as a Genin, he had come a long way but he was still a little off when it came to interacting with people normally.

"Hello Uzumaki, Naruto my name is Sai. I am a chuunin of Konoha and a part of team seven with Haruno, Sakura." Sai said to Naruto as he marched up to Naruto and stood directly in front of him, almost in a threatening manner.

"Uh-yeah, good to know," said Naruto a little uncertainly at the strange behavior of this guy. Ino came to the rescue by whispering to Naruto about Sai's childhood. Naruto nodded in understanding because he knew very well how Danzo treated the ANBU in the Root division. There was no place for errors and mistakes as the Root division handled the dirtiest and most covert operations where Konoha's name was not supposed to come at all.

"So Sakura, what stuff did you guys plan on doing?" Naruto was interested to know what the people of Konoha did for fun, he had been to other villages and most of the parties he attended had dances, fireworks, and incredible feats and displays of jutsus by ninjas.

"Well we usually talk about our lives and the new jutsus that we learned over the last year, and after dinner there is music so people that feel like dancing goes ahead and dance. Then we share stories about interesting missions."

"HEY DINNER IS READY!" Four really big men came over carrying huge trays that were heaped with food and delicacies.

"Whoa, that's a lot of food, how do you guys arrange something like that?" asked Naruto, he was surprised that it was in the budget of these ninjas to be able to order food of this quantity and quality for a small and casual party such as this one.

"Oh we don't have to pay anything, we get the food courtesy of the Akamichi clan and their barbecue is the best in the village." Sakura gestured for Naruto to follow and went to the tables that were set in a circle so that all of them could sit down and eat together. Everyone quickly gathered around and sat down as the four men put the food on the tables before going back.

"So Naruto tell us something about yourself, where did you grow up and what kinds of things have you been doing before coming to Konoha?" asked Choji, he was quite interested in the stranger mainly because there were very few strangers that came to the village and got enrolled as a ninja with a few hours.

"Hmm," thought Naruto for a few seconds before he began speaking "Well the day I was born was the day that the village was attacked by the Kyuubi. My parents were ninjas of Konoha and they died trying to fight the fox. Jiraiya-sama came to the village after the whole incident was over and he said that he found me on the streets. So he took me to Mount Myouboken where I trained under the tutelage of all the sages. Jiraiya-sama also trained me himself and taught me three of my strongest techniques that I know. I also did missions that Jiraiya-sama asked of me and worked with him occasionally on missions that he could not do by himself."

"Oooh what kind of missions did you do together?" asked Choji in an awed voice, here was a guy who claimed to have worked with Jiraiya of the Legendary Sannin. The Sannins handled missions that were beyond the caliber of any other ninjas.

"Well most of them I cannot really talk about because they are really covert, but there is one that I did with him when I was eleven. He said that he had found out about an organization of S-class ninja criminals and he wanted to see where one of their hideouts was. We went undercover as tourists in one of the villages surrounding Amegakure. Jiraiya-sama told me to scout out the village and the surrounding areas and went to Amegakure for information gathering and scouting. I did as I was told and scouted out the village but found nothing suspicious other than a ruined hut. When I got closer to the hut, it had numerous booby traps set up around it. Intrigued, I went into the hut by avoiding the booby traps but found nothing inside other than four planks with pictures of frogs and names written under each picture. One of the planks was in a very bad condition and I could not make out the name on that one but the other ones had the names Yahiko, Nagato, and Konan. I searched these names in all the village ninja catalogs and bingo books from all ninja villages, but these guys are definitely not official ninjas. Later Jiraiya-sama returned and said that he had gotten a lot of information from the villages and then I told him about the small hut. We went to check it out but didn't find anything that I did not already see, so we left. Later I found out that we were on a mission to find out that the head of the organization was the guy who was actually in control of the village of Amegakure, their kage has no real power." Naruto face held a very grave expression as told the group of his mission.

"BS, we do not get sent on S class missions at all for a reason, you see all chuunin level ninjas only do A and B-class missions, there is no way that Jiraiya-sama would take a mere eleven year old on a S-class investigation mission. If he wanted to he could have any number of ANBU accompany him, what is so special about you?" Many had the same thoughts going through their heads but Kiba was not the silent type so he challenged Naruto's claim, nobody outdid Kiba when it came to exaggerating a mission's difficulty and especially when relating it to the rest of the ninjas about how the mission went.

"He took me because I am really good at stealth and covert missions and also because at the time my skills were better than most ANBU squad leaders." Naruto had not realized that ANBU was a much respected organization that only took the best of the best that Konoha had to offer, challenging them in front of a group of young chuunins and jounins was a very bad choice.

"Oh yeah, I say bullshit to that because you are not a protégé of this village's best ninja like Kakashi Hatake and you don't have any bloodline limits (looking at Neji) to enhance your stealth abilities, so what do you have that allows you to be better than the ANBU squad leaders?" shouted back Kiba as he got more and more infuriated by the newcomer's excessive boasting.

"Better watch your tongue Inuzuka; you are talking to an official of a higher rank." Neji said with a very cold edge in his voice.

"I have speed," said Naruto in a very calm voice as he disappeared from where he was sitting and reappeared behind Kiba leaning against the wall, with a smirk on his face.

Kiba looked around frantically before asking out loud "Where'd he go?" Neji, Shino, and Shikamaru all pointed behind Kiba, while Ino, Sakura, and Choji were trying really hard not to laugh.

"It seems that his words were not just exaggeration, he is indeed skilled," said a new voice from a corner of the pavilion where a silver haired ninja was standing looking at the ground.

"Kakashi sensei, what a pleasant surprise!" said Sakura, it has been almost a whole year since she had talked to her previous sensei.

"Yo Sakura, Sai. Nice to see you both, it seems Tsunade-sama in re-deploying team 7 for a mission; we have a new member, Naruto. Ambassador Temari, you are to accompany us to Sunagakure we are going on a mission to help against the kidnap of the Kazekage. Mission details will be delivered to all of you at the Hokage's office tomorrow, please be there at exactly seven in the morning. Shikamaru Nara, please escort the ambassador to the Hokage's office immediately." Kakashi sushined away, along with Shikamaru and a very worried Temari towards the Hokage tower.

"Gaara has been kidnapped? Who could have possibly entered Suna and kidnap their Kazekage? Seems like an extremely powerful Shinobi's work." Naruto's frantic thoughts ran through the minds of many that were present there.

"Gaara is an extremely strong Shinobi, and given the fact that he was in Suna gives him a huge advantage, who could have been strong enough to abduct him from his own village?" said Shino in his usual monotone voice.

"Indeed, the Aburame's claim has credit, Gaara is the strongest among all of us, and Suna's security is first class, it must have been quite a fight to get Gaara out of there. These ninjas are definitely not your ordinary type criminals; they must have bounty on their heads." Neji said as he pulled out his bingo book and started looking at the missing Nins with the heaviest bounties on their heads. Naruto went over to Neji and also looked at the bingo book over his shoulder. "Whoever infiltrated Suna has to know the inner workings of the village that gives only one possibility, Sasori of the Sand."

"And he has got quite a bounty on his head, are there no more Suna missing Nins that are capable of kidnapping Gaara?" asked Naruto as he took the bingo book from Neji and flipped a few more pages.

"There are no more Suna Nins that are strong enough to single-handedly infiltrate the village and kidnap their number one citizen. This information could be useful, let's report to the Hokage tower right now."

"Yes, but is it going to be alright if we all just barged into the office right now?" asked Naruto, he was well aware of Tsunade's anger, especially her temperament when she usually relaxes and drinks sake.

"No choice, this is a matter of our ally's life as well as the protection of the ambassador, who is currently under Konoha's protection," Neji said as he stood up.

"Okay, Neji and I will go to the Hokage tower, maybe you guys should stay here and we will come back later," said Naruto before he and Neji both sushined towards the Hokage tower.

In Hokage's Office 

Naruto and Neji ran up the stairs and knocked on the door of the office. Shizune opened the door and was quite surprised to find Neji and Naruto standing before her. "Neji-san, Naruto what is going on? Shouldn't you guys be at the gathering?"

"We have urgent and important information for Hokage-sama, we need to let her know of this immediately," said Neji and walked into the office when Shizune moved away from the door and let them in.

Neji marched right up to Tsunade's desk and said "I and Naruto have deduced a possible ninja who could have done the kidnapping of Gaara from within the walls of Suna; I think this can be valuable when we are preparing to go to Suna to investigate and retrieve the Kazekage from the kidnappers." Naruto walked in and put his hand on Temari's shoulder letting her know that he was also worried about Gaara.

"What have you two found out?" asked Tsunade very much interested, Neji's deductions had always proved valuable before and this one could be a good one as well.

"To be able to infiltrate Suna and kidnap the Kazekage, one has to know how the security of the village functions. Someone can do that only if he/she is a ninja of that village. The only missing Nin from Suna capable of doing that is Sasori of the Sand, unless this one is a new criminal that we have not heard of before," replied Neji, satisfied that he had covered all the aspects that could show that his deduction was wrong, or had any miscalculations.

"Temari, what are your thoughts on this?" asked Tsunade as she looked at the grief stricken girl's face.

"The red puppeteer abandoned Suna more than a few decades ago, we ourselves don't even know for sure whether he is alive or not, much less say with certainty that he was the one that actually kidnapped Gaara," replied Temari, she was not absolutely certain but it could have been the red puppeteer after all whoever took down Kankuro, a puppet master of the highest caliber in their village, had to know something about puppets and their disadvantages.

"There were reports that Kankuro had a fight and it was the result of that fight that he was poisoned. It looks suspiciously like a puppet was responsible for this poisoning because they found a wooden claw embedded in his arm which contained the poison. Tomorrow I will be sending Team seven mainly because Sakura is a part of it. She is the only one other than me and Shizune that has any hope of saving your brother from being poisoned to death." Tsunade said as she got up to leave the room. "Kakashi you better be here on time tomorrow or I will cut your pay for the rest of the year, you hear me?"

"Yes Hokage-sama, I can assure you that there will be no delay tomorrow," said Kakashi, reassuring himself more than the others in the room.

"Too bad," thought Tsunade "I could have bought a lot of fine quality sake with that amount of money!"

At the pavilion

Ino, Sakura, Tenten, and Hinata sat silently, all wondering how their friend Temari was feeling about this sudden and disastrous news about her brothers, her only remaining family. Choji, Lee, Shino, and Kiba on the other hand had very different thoughts racing through their heads. Sai just sat on an empty table with a blank look on his face (very Sai-like). Kiba was thinking of the best way to retain the very weak alliance with Suna would mean that a full reinforcement in helping find Gaara, something that they could not afford to give to Suna in their current situation. Konoha itself was in dire need of more shinobis as it is; they were already handing out C-ranked missions to the genins, how far can they go on like this? Lee was thinking what was taking his friend so long to return and give him hopefully a mission in backing up team seven, team seven was disbanded two years ago, re-deploying such an old team for such an important mission, what is the Godaime Hokage thinking! Choji had lost his appetite, (something that rarely happened!) Gaara was kidnapped. Gaara, the strongest ninja he had known in the chuunin exams, and now the current Kazekage of Sunagakure. It is impossible to believe that there are shinobis strong enough to overpower the kages like this, in their own village surrounded by guards and security, not to mention the fact that he was a jinchuuriki with full control over the Shukaku. How strong is this Sasori of the sand? What can an old team like team seven do against such an opponent, they do not even have Sasuke Uchiha anymore, he is after all the holder of the strongest Kekkei Genkai that the village had in over a century, the Uchiha force was one of the key factors because of which Konoha triumphed in the third Shinobi World War.

Two simultaneous whooshing sounds alerted the chuunins that their comrades had arrived from the Hokage Tower. "What happened?" asked seven anxious voices as soon as the two landed in the middle of the pavilion.

"The Hokage has taken into consideration that the kidnapper might be Sasori of the sand. Sakura, you are to pack all the materials needed for poison removal, Temari's older brother the puppet master Kankuro was poisoned in the skirmish that occurred when they were kidnapping Gaara. Tsunade-sama gave the ultimate threat that works against Kakashi, you guys better not be late. Lee, I need you to accompany me to Gai sensei's house; I want to ask him to see if he can acquire a back up mission to help team seven. Sakura, Tsunade-sama probably has everything you need at the hospital already; I suggest you pack right now. Ino, Choji, go to the Nara estate, the ambassador is need of companionship tonight. Hinata-sama, you must report back at the Hyuuga compound, it is past curfew for you, and please keep this mission a secret from the council and Haishi-sama, at least for the sake of Konoha. Uzumaki, since you have an early mission, my only advice is, get a good night's sleep. As far as experience goes you will need as much of it as possible."

Neji's commands were followed instantly as everyone went about doing exactly as Neji asked the others to do. Naruto, for his part, left the pavilion and returned to the room he was lodged in. He knew he could not sleep even if he had wanted to, so he quickly packed a few clothes in a small pocket scroll and pulled out the scroll that contained his armor that the sages made for him after he had learned enough sealing techniques to make good use of it. Next he sat down and made three clones so they could gather nature energy, he himself sat down into a meditative state where he would neither be completely asleep nor would he be awake. He would be in a trance-like state where his body and mind can rest but still be attentive to his environment; this was taught to Naruto by Jiraiya after learning what the Shukaku had done with Gaara. Jiraiya had told Naruto to use this only on missions, and the Shukaku was able to do that to Gaara only because Gaara's seal was weak and not nearly on the level of the seal that Minato had put on Naruto, but it is never bad to stay cautious, after all the more Kyuubi chakra Naruto used, the more his seal weakened.

**Ok done! Ya I decided to follow the main storyline but don't worry I will make up my own as we go, I don't intent to rip off Kishimoto. To answer some of the reviews that I have gotten so far: No harem (eww) just Naruto/Sakura. Guys, Naruto does not know about his parents because I have planned a big plot that revolves around Naruto, his parents, and the Kyuubi. We will see a huge political side of things going on in the next chapter; it will be an interesting clash, Tsunade vs Council. There will be Tsunade/Jiraiya pairing but it will be light (NO PERVERSENESS I AM STRICTLY KEEPING IT RATED T). See ya guys later. **


	4. On the Radar!

On the radar:

Morning came soon enough and Tsunade was taking her sleep right on the desk. There had been an influx of documents from the Fire Daimyo demanding that Konoha must help Suna in their Kazekage kidnapping with full support, because he still owed Sunagakure some money. There had also been requests from other elemental nations about more information on Sunagakure's status, and as a cherry on top, the council had demanded a meeting with her the first thing in the morning. To sum it all up, Tsunade had one of the worst nights of her time as the Godaime Hokage. Shizune walked into her office and was not surprised in the least to find Tsunade in her current state. She set another stack of documents on the desk before shaking her up from her nap.

"Tsunade-sama, Kakashi is here on the Kazekage kidnapping mission." Tsunade looked at her with bleary eyes before muttering something about bothersome assistants and walked off into the bathroom.

As she walked out, she saw Kakashi waiting patiently in front of her desk and Sakura standing quietly behind. "Where are Temari and Naruto?"

"Temari will be here shortly." Sakura interjected as she saw Temari getting ready to leave at the Nara compound. As if on cue, the door to the office opened and in walked Temari accompanied by Shikamaru.

"Now where is that Naruto?" thought Tsunade when something jumped into the office through the open window. For a few moments Tsunade was too stunned to process what she was seeing. It was Naruto, only not like the Naruto she had seen before. Naruto was completely outfitted in full black leather armor, gauntlets adorned his arms, he had fill sleeved leather shirt along with leather pants, and shin length boots finished the outfit (think Cloud in Advent Children, only completely full-sleeved). Finally she snapped out of her daze as she thought "If Naruto keeps up his fashion statement, in a few days all the kunoichis of Konoha are going to start to chase him around!"

"Hokage-sama, we are still waiting for the mission details," said Kakashi in a sarcastic tone, there was no doubt a smirk on his face behind that mask of his.

"Yes, as far as we know the Kazekage has been kidnapped by the Akatsuki, and their intention is clearly to extract the Shukaku from Gaara which will surely kill the Kazekage unless we can find him and stop the kidnappers. As you might know, Sai cannot accompany you to this mission because his duties as an ANBU requires him to be someplace else, therefore I will dispatch a back up team shortly after Team Seven leaves. Therefore for this mission I dispatch Kakashi Hatake as the Jounin Captain with Tokubetsu Jounin Naruto Uzumaki, Chuunin Sakura Haruno, and Sunagakure Ambassador Temari."

"Hai!" came three simultaneous voices as Naruto, Sakura, and Temari vanished from the office, only the wide eyed Kakashi remained.

"Hokage-sama, did you just say Uzumaki?" asked Kakashi, as he looked at the spot that Naruto was standing only a few minutes before.

"Dammit, I shouldn't have said his last name, I blew his cover!" thought Tsunade as she sighed before replying Kakashi's question. "Yes, you heard me right Kakashi that is Naruto Uzumaki, the last surviving member of the Uzumaki clan…and also the Namikaze clan."

"Are you saying that he is my sensei's…but…what happened…how?" sputtered Kakashi completely losing control of his emotions and bearings, realizing that he had been living a big lie this whole time. He had been blaming himself all this time for not being there for his Sensei, and Kushina who was like an elder sister to him when the Kyuubi had attacked the village. Now Naruto's return proves that there was some chance that he could make up for his past mistakes through his guidance in the Yondaime Hokage's legacy's upbringing.

Tsunade stood up and walked around the desk, facing Kakashi squarely. "Listen Kakashi, what I am about to say is a high profile secret of Konoha that was originally known only by me, Jiraiya, and the Sandaime Hokage, not even the council knows that Naruto is the Yondaime's legacy, but there is a much darker secret to him than you realize. Do you swear to an oath of secrecy to what I am about to say to you?"

"I do Hokage-sama," replied Kakashi.

"Alright, here is what truly happened on the night that the Kyuubi attacked the village," started Tsunade as she turned around and looked at the rest of Konoha through the huge glass wall in the office. "Minato was with Kushina when the Kyuubi attacked, but it just wasn't a rampage, as we thought previously, the fox was being controlled by someone, someone extremely powerful. As a result he was summoned out of Kushina during her delivery. Minato confronted the person, but he had Naruto in his hands and therefore Minato had to let him go. By that time the fox was planning on getting to Konoha, so Minato faced him down and sealed him again, giving his life in the process. You already know why Kushina died, but the boy that Minato sealed the fox within was Naruto, that is why Sarutobi sensei thought it was imperative that Naruto grow up outside the village. His life would have been worse than hell if he lived in the village, the villagers would have treated him like Kyuubi itself, while the council would have tore the boy's future by trying to control him. Do you now understand why we had to keep this secret from the rest of Konoha?" asked Tsunade turning back to look at Kakashi in the eye.

"Yes, Hokage-sama," replied Kakashi in a quiet voice.

"Naruto still does not know about his heritage or his parents, and for now I would like to keep it that way, take care of him, I would like to see him fulfill his dream. I suggest you move out; there is still a mission at hand!"

"Hai!" shouted Kakashi, and he too sushined out of her office.

"Well, at least he can keep this to himself; I have to make sure that Jiraiya gives the details to Kakashi later he is the best person right now to continue Naruto's training," thought Tsunade as she was getting ready to pull out some sake when Shizune poked her head through the door.

"Hokage-sama, the three elder council members are here to discuss a matter of utmost importance with you," Shizune's facial expression already confirmed that this concerned the new ninja of the village that appeared out of nowhere in the records.

"Yes send them in and bring Naruto's file with you, I will have to put the blame on Sarutobi sensei, won't I?" said Tsunade with a smirk on her face, which disappeared as soon as Koharu Utatane and Homura Mitokado entered her office, and it soon turned into a scowl when they were followed by Danzo Shimura.

"Tsunade, there seems to be as discrepancy in the ninja records, Homura was going through the registration files and there seems to be a new ninja of quite a high rank who has no history whatsoever in the academy or on missions, where is he from and why is he here?" asked Koharu with an annoyed face, it really was not the council's place to deal with such trifle matters and Tsunade noticed that point quickly enough.

"And why is the council worrying about such small matters, we usually leave it to the clerks to clarify such mistakes if there are any?" asked Tsunade in an annoyed voice feigning ignorance.

"Why? Well is it not obvious? It says that his last name is Uzumaki! I thought we had seen the last of them with the last jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi. Where did this one drop off from?" asked Homura now getting angry because there was a smirk forming on Tsunade's lips.

"Shizune do you have the file?" asked Tsunade, as she looked at Shizune standing at the back corner of the room.

"Yes Hokage-sama, here" said Shizune as she handed her the file. Tsunade flipped to the page that held the information that held Naruto's details and his life history, made up by the Sandaime Hokage and handed it to Koharu. He looked at the contents with furrowed brows before handing it to Homura.

"That still does not explain his parentage or his last name! Who were his parents?" asked Koharu looking back at the Godaime Hokage with suspicion.

"As you already know, there were quite a few Uzumakis in Konoha during the Kyuubi attack; it could have been the child of any one of them. Do not ask me, how would I know? I came to the village after the Kyuubi was dealt with!" said Tsunade, her voice rising with each word.

"We are not here to quarrel," Danzo's heavy voice cut in sharply. "Just tell us how this is possible, we knew of every Uzumaki in this village, they were all accounted for, where did this one come from. As far as I remember, the clan met its end with the Kyuubi, each and every one died defending Konoha."

"Danzo, I have taken that into account, as you know, Jiraiya had taken the boy out of this village as an apprentice, and he grew up with Jiraiya. If you want to know more ask the pervert, for now all I know is that this boy could have been an illegitimate child, or he could have been off the records because he was born on the day that the Kyuubi attacked. Even Sarutobi sensei knew more about the boy than I did and it was his decision that Jiraiya apprentice him. Are you questioning the Sandaime Hokage's judgment?" Tsunade knew full well that when Sarutobi sensei's name came into an argument, it worked like an ace against the council, he was the only man that the council seemed to respect, and even Danzo did not dare say anything when the Sandaime Hokage's name came into account. Tsunade did not know the reason behind such respect, but she knew Hiruzen Sarutobi was one of the founding members of the council of Konoha.

"Yes, this file was created by him," observed Koharu before snapping it close. "I did not know Jiraiya had taken an apprentice. Maybe the Sannin of Konoha will rise again, what do you say Tsunade?" asked Koharu in an almost playful tone, not seeing the hardness that came upon the Godaime Hokage's visage.

"If that is your way of asking whether we will allow that traitor Uchiha back into this village, then my answer remains the same, he will be able to join the ranks of Konoha Shinobi only if he confesses and tells MY ANBU everything that we need to know, understood!" said Tsunade in even tones that showed her barely contained anger.

"The matter that we came to resolve is still at hand what do we do with the boy?" again Danzo's voice cut in, the man had an uncanny observation skill.

"What about him, I told you all I know, the rest you have to ask from Jiraiya," said Tsunade, trying to sound as nonchalant and uncaring as possible.

"Do not lie to us Hokage, this way you lose our trust and the power behind your position, tell us the truth, lest we find it out ourselves!" said the old war hawk in the same tone.

"Danzo knows something," thought Tsunade, thinking furiously for a good counter to the accusation. "He is only this adamant when he has found evidence that I am lying, or he knows the full truth but only wants to humiliate me in front of the whole council by revealing it himself." She could not come up with anything useful so she tried to buy some time. "Danzo, I would ask you to be more careful before accusing me, I am still your Hokage, and as a result your superior."

Danzo acknowledged her claim with a nod, but he was not done with his side of the argument. "I understand your position well enough Tsunade, yet the dispute over this boy has only become more doubtful than before. Hiruzen had asked me to keep an eye on the last survivors of the Whirlpool country, and I had followed his orders by keeping close watch on all of them. The Root reported that the people who had accompanied Kushina Uzumaki were aloof and mostly kept to themselves. The only person who could have delivered a baby on the night of the Kyuubi attack was Kushina herself, but Hiruzen told us that the young Namikaze died before seeing the light of the day, so where did this boy come from?"

The old war hawk's words made perfect sense, there was no way that Tsunade could dispute that, and she desperately tried to look for a way out. Understanding started to dawn in Homura and Koharu's eyes. Suddenly Koharu's head shot up and she looked at Tsunade with a dark twinkle in her eyes. "Tell me Tsunade, how does a rookie ninja get the position of a Tokubetsu Jounin right from the start, he should have started as a genin, should he have not?"

"Koharu Utatane, are you really as stupid as you look? Do you think that a boy trained by Jiraiya and the Sages of Mount Myoboku will actually be on the level of a genin? If you have to know I tested him against one of the best Jounins from his graduating class and he made that Jounin forfeit in less than five minutes, what more proof do you need of his capabilities?"

Koharu could not withstand that the vain slug princess dared to insult her in front of her colleagues, who did she think she was? "You dare to mock me?" shouted Koharu, rising to her feet in rage.

"Your ignorance is unbelievable," replied Tsunade coolly without leaving her seat. Tsunade watched on amusedly, thinking, this was their council made up of fools and ignorant old civilians. Whose stupid idea was it to make these people the head of a village? Danzo had had enough of Koharu's bantering.

"Sit down Koharu, you should not have meddled in something that you do not know of," said Danzo, his voice so cold that it instantly made Koharu shut her mouth and obey the command. Of course the boy was strong, thought Danzo, every Shinobi trained by Jiraiya had turned out to be exceptionally skilled and talented, and Minato Namikaze was a shining example. If this boy, Naruto was anything like Minato…then it suddenly struck Danzo like a hammer to the gut. How could he have missed the resemblance? Naruto's profile showed the boy's face well enough, he had his father's fair blonde hair and stunning electric blue eyes. His deduction had been on the mark, so Kushina had given birth to boy that day, Minato's legacy lives after all. For some unknown reason, this thought gave him a feeling, an alien feeling, something that he had not felt in a long time. He quickly buried it, just as he buried everything that came in the way of his ambition for power. "We are done here, I will be sure to ask Jiraiya about any other information that I need. Koharu, Homura, we still have other matters to attend to at the Hyuuga estate. Thank you for your time, Tsunade." With that the old war hawk limped out of her office followed by the two old cronies.

Tsunade sat at her desk completely stunned and dumbstruck. Did Danzo just…show her respect? Did the sun rise from the west today? "Either I am going mad or my mind is playing tricks on me! I really need a drink now," mumbled Tsunade to herself as she pulled out a bottle of sake and a cup.

With Naruto 

Naruto had been waiting for Kakashi for a while now, what was taking the man so long. He looked at Temari, and then at Sakura. None of them seemed to be dealing with his dilemma of why their team captain was late. "Hey, do you guys know what is taking our captain so long to get here?" he asked uncertainly, oblivious to the fact that the Shinobis from his graduating class had grown quite used to Kakashi's usual tardiness.

"Oh yeah, he is not that late, I mean only fifteen minutes, he will be here in no time," answered Sakura absent mindedly.

"He did not get to ponder on Sakura's words as Kakashi's chakra signature entered his range, finally they could get a move on." Kakashi landed in front of Naruto as a blur, before taking the solid form of a tall, silver haired Cyclops.

"Yo, sorry I took so long, you see I tripped down the stairs on my way here," he said with his unique eye smile.

Naruto looked at him incredulously while Sakura and Temari both sighed. "Kakashi, I am tired of your excuses, let us get moving, my brothers are waiting!" said Temari in a voice that meant, get-your-ass-moving-or-you-are-dead.

"Yes, of course. I will take the lead with the ambassador right behind me. Sakura you will keep an eye on the surroundings as you will be directly behind the ambassador, Naruto you will be in the rear, so keep an eye on our trail, I don't want mercenary ninjas ambushing us from behind. I trust you can do what I have asked?"

"Yes, I can, there will be no ambush from behind," replied Naruto, he appeared to be very calm on the outside, but inside he was a raging bull. "What does the Cyclops think of me as, a baby with no experience? I have been on more espionage and assassination missions than any Chuunin here." Assassination missions were missions where they were the ambushers and failure was not an option, Jiraiya had taken great care in explaining Naruto that assassination missions were missions that were given to Shinobi of the highest caliber. These missions were there to ensure that something did not happen, and if the ninja was caught, he would have to kill himself, interrogation of assassin ninjas were worse than death.

"Very well then, let's go," with that all four of them sushined out of the village and into the forest. As soon as they entered the forest, all four of them took to the treetops, so that anybody following them would have a hard time trying to monitor their movement or see them. Kakashi set a steady pace that required everybody to move but was not demandingly high; at this rate they would make Sunagakure by morning the next day, if they took a break only during the night. The rest of the journey was quite uneventful and the atmosphere in the group was heavy with anxiety.

Temari was worried for her younger brother, if the Akatsuki succeeded in extracting the soul of the Shukaku from Gaara, then he would surely die. Sakura was worried, not because she was close to Gaara but because she knew what Gaara was to Konoha. Konoha was the strongest among all the Shinobi villages prior to the chuunin exams when Konoha was attacked by Orochimaru and his forces and they lost the Sandaime Hokage. During the period of weakness, Gaara had convinced his village to form an alliance with Konoha, or else Konoha would have surely been invaded by some other village because many village leaders were jealous of Konoha's prosperity and strength. Kakashi was also worried for similar reasons; Gaara was the only link that Konoha had that tied Suna and Konoha to the alliance. Without Gaara as the Kazekage, old rivalries would rise and Suna might as well attack Konoha because during the invasion many Suna ninjas had lost their lives too and their previous Kazekage.

Naruto, on the other hand was worried but for quite different reasons. He considered Gaara to be a brother borne of the kinship and the burden that they both shared and the hardships they both had to face because of this burden. Gaara, unlike Naruto, had grown up in his own village and had to endure the hatred that the villagers possessed for the Shukaku. Few people realized the big difference between people and the soul of the beast they possessed. Every jinchuuriki was a human, they just contained the beast because their body and mind was the best suited to be a jinchuuriki. Civilians thought that the jinchuurikis were the beast themselves and sought to end the ninja's life while they were young, and shinobis wanted to kill this jinchuuriki because they had lost their friends and family at the hand of the beast. Naruto understood the guy's anger and selfishness because Gaara, when he became powerful enough, had become a survivor. Anything that he considered a threat to his life or his mental state, he killed.

People of Suna had naturally started to ignore the young boy because he was just too much to deal with and Gaara had become an outcast, slowly becoming the beast that he possessed. When Naruto had found Gaara, he had realized that the only thing that could save Gaara were bonds. Bonds with other humans were the only thing that could reawaken the humanity that resided deep inside his soul. Realizing this, Naruto sought to do exactly that. He tried his best to become Gaara's friend, even though Gaara beat him and humiliated him, sometime had even put him in the Suna prison for being a nuisance to the Kazekage's son. Yet, in the end Gaara felt the curiosity to ask Naruto why he would not give up and Naruto had told him that because he was a jinchuuriki too. This had caused Gaara to slowly open up to Naruto, and when he felt he could take down more of his barriers, he forged more bonds with his siblings and then the people of the village. During Naruto's eight month stay in Suna, he had realized that without his bonds with Jiraiya, Tsunade, and his close friends in other villages as well as his masters in Mount Myoboku, would he have turned out to be the same as Gaara? Very likely, and for that reason his respect for the Sandaime Hokage, Jiraiya, the Godaime Hokage, and all the people who appreciated him even after knowing the full truth about him only increased.

Sunagakure appeared in the horizon to the group just a little after dawn and they picked up their pace to finally reach their destination. As soon as they landed at the gates, the group realized that the village had gone into high level alert. All the shops were closed, the streets empty, everybody had taken refuge in the tunnels under the village. The Suna ninjas checked their papers before quickly taking them to the hospital where Sakura could begin her work on Kankuro.

As Naruto and Kakashi were waiting in the hospital, an elder came into the room, she looked like she would drop from lack of strength any minute, and then she looked at Kakashi and her eyes lit up with surprise that quickly turned to anger. "The White-fang of Konoha!" she shouted before charging and attacking Kakashi. The copy-ninja was so surprised with the sudden charge that he had not time to react, fortunately for him Naruto was there and the next second the elder found herself lying on one of the futons in the waiting room of the hospital. The elder slowly got up before she looked around and her eyes landed on Naruto. "Was that you boy, that stopped me from having at it from him?" she asked pointing a finger at Kakashi.

"Yes, why did you attack the captain of our squad without any cause?" asked Naruto, he was debating whether he had stepped out of line by trying to contain the situation, attacking important people from foreign villages could have serious consequences, Naruto knew this from personal experience.

"It is quite all right Naruto, I can understand her anger at this White-fang that she thought must be me," said Kakashi holding up his hand to stall any forthcoming argument. "Excuse me madam, but you must be mistaken I am not Sakumo Hatake, the man that killed more than his share of Sunagakure ninjas during the third Shinobi World War. I am his son, Kakashi Hatake; I am here to help Suna in any manner with rescuing the Kazekage from the Akatsuki." Kakashi sounded like he was used to this kind of mistakes, after all the White-fang was called so because of the unique silver hair.

"Oh, I am so sorry for the mistake. I apologize for the unforgivable behavior, tell me how the Slug-Sannin is doing, I believe that she has taken her Grandfather's position in Konoha?" There was a smirk already forming on her face, everybody knew how much Tsunade hated that name. She looked at Naruto again, and seemed to see something that she had previously missed. "Boy what is your name, have we perhaps met before?" asked Chiyo in a thoughtful voice.

"I am absolutely sure that I have not met you before, my name is Naruto Uzumaki," replied Naruto, he would definitely remember someone like this old council member, from any village.

"Hey, I see you have already met your newest team member, this our puppet expert Honored Grandmother Chiyo. She was chosen because the wooden poison injector that we found on Kankuro identified the attacker as Sasori of the Sand. Chiyo Sama knows a lot about Sasori; therefore on your mission to rescue the Kazekage, she will accompany you instead of me. I have to go meet with Baki, so I will see you guys later," said Temari coming out of Kankuro's room.

"Her good mood must mean that Sakura has succeeded in saving Kankuro's life, she must be a really talented combat medic, baa-chan did say that Sakura was the only one other than herself and Shizune-chan that could save Kankuro's life." Thought Naruto when he say Sakura coming out of the room wiping he hands in a towel. "Congratulations Sakura, I take it that your operation was successful?" said Naruto, already knowing the answer to his question.

"Oh thank you Naruto, yes Kankuro is out of danger, all he has to do now is rest for a few days and he will be fine. I have taken the blueprints of the poison, I will make a few vials of antidote for all of us right away, I think Temari said that we will be leaving to look for Gaara in a few hours, so I guess we should get ready," said Sakura as she threw away the towel and took out a little sealed test tube with a purple liquid inside. "Do you know where I can find a processing lab, I need to work on this poison?" she asked to one of the passing nurses, who nodded and led her away.

"Kakashi-sensei where are we staying, I think I need to clean up after traveling in all this heat?" asked Naruto turning to see Kakashi hoisting his pack back onto his shoulder.

"Yes Naruto, Temari has given us accommodation in her in the Kazekage's mansion itself, let's go, I need a few supplies for the mission so I need to get going as well." With that both Naruto and Kakashi sushined out of the hospital, towards the Kazekage's residence. As they neared the mansion, Naruto noticed that it had changed a lot since his last visit to the place. The mansion itself has remained the same but the area around it was different, before it just sat on a large patch of sand, not it sat in a small oasis. There were flowers and palm trees surrounding the house with a small fountain in the front and a large pool at the back, he had to give it to Gaara; the man knew how to live in luxury.

Several hours later

Naruto, Kakashi, Sakura, and Chiyo were standing at the gates of Sunagakure with Temari, Baki and several other ninjas of Suna. "I don't think I need to say anything other than best of luck, I know you guys will try your best to get my brother to safety." Temari said mostly looking at Naruto.

"Temari, Gaara knows me better than most people, who know me, and I consider him to be my brother, there is nothing that will stop me from trying my best. You know that once I have set my mind to something I do not give up," said Naruto giving his trademark smile while rubbing the back of his head.

"Good luck team seven, from what I have seen of you people, I can rest assured that I am putting the Kazekage's safety into the best and most capable hands. Good luck, from what I have seen of Sasori you will need it, the last of our scouts retuned reporting that the Kazekage was taken into the marsh area directly southeast of here at the border of the desert. In my estimation that is around seven miles from here." Baki was holding a crude hand drawn map by the captain of the scouting squad that was sent after two fleeing Akatsuki members. Kakashi took the map and folded it before putting it inside his vest.

"Team seven, move out!" ordered Kakashi as he took the lead followed closely by Chiyo, Sakura and the Naruto at the rear again.

"Why do I always get the rear end of the line?" whined Naruto as they moved towards the southeast borders of Sunagakure.

**Whew finally done! Hey people, I know it took me a while with this chapter but classes started so I cannot put as much time as I did before. From previous reviews people have asked me why Naruto has whisker marks on his cheeks while the previous jinchuurikis for the Kyuubi did not. The best answer I found was that none of the previous jinchuurikis were in the womb of their mother with the fox sealed in them. Other than that ask Kishimoto. Next chapter is a fight, not the main fight but a major one none the less. See ya guys later! **


	5. Confrontation

Confrontation:

Four blurs moved through the sand as they neared the border of the desert. It was getting darker as night started to fall, and Kakashi held his hand out to stop his team. "I have located the marshes with the Sharingan, it is two miles ahead. There are also rocky patches among the marshes, huge caves and boulders; I am guessing that Gaara is held in one of those caves. Remember the plan, as soon as we get Gaara we get out, we are not to confront the Akatsuki unless absolutely necessary. Understood?" said Kakashi as he looked at each member of his team.

"Why not confront them, there are only two of them and four of us, statistically we can take them down and capture them, then we can interrogate them to find out more about the Akatsuki and why they are after the bijuus," asked Naruto, nobody could tell in the dark (and Kakashi had already covered up his Sharingan) but Naruto's eyes were red, he was using the Kyuubi's enhanced visions to see more clearly so that they did not get ambushed.

"Yes, statistically you are right Naruto, but it does not apply to these ninjas because they are top class Shinobis, we have no idea what their skills are, and we do not want to endanger Gaara's life by fighting the Akatsuki instead of getting him out of there and back in Suna. Secondly, I believe that we are not ready to take on two dangerous criminals all by ourselves," replied Kakashi though he knew Naruto did not believe him.

"Can I talk to you alone for a moment?" asked Naruto, and with a nod Naruto and Kakashi moved out of Sakura's and Chiyo's earshot.

"What do want to talk about?" asked Kakashi.

"Have you really not noticed, or are you pretending to keep us in false security?" asked Naruto, as far as he was concerned they were not truly alone.

"Damn, I got caught," thought Kakashi before asking "How much can you sense?"

"Two, not as strong as I thought they would be. One is much more like an aquatic organism, and has a little bit higher chakra reserves than the other, both are moving towards our location at a very low pace, and they are a little less than a mile away from us," replied Naruto, he could see the silhouettes of two figures moving towards them, but they were taking their sweet time.

"Wow, he has better chakra sensing abilities than me," thought Kakashi. "How can you tell how far they are Naruto?"

"I can see them."

"How? You do not have a blood line limit, nor do you have transplanted eyes!"

"I have got the Kyuubi, as you already know, using his eyes, I can see more than normal sight, and his eyes have an effect, if you look at me directly for a few seconds, I can put a little Kyuubi chakra into my eyes and you will be paralyzed by fear for a few hours, unless you have your own ocular powers. It is just that the Kyuubi has certain…qualities that make him more unique than any other tailed beasts." Naruto replied, shocking Kakashi a little bit.

"Well I think we should still stick to the plan because Jiraiya-sama said that he does not want you to face the Akatsuki yet, and you are my responsibility until this mission is over. We get Gaara and get out, unless we are forced to face them." Kakashi said, as he took his mask down, to look at the pursuers that Naruto mentioned.

"These are not the ones that kidnapped Gaara," said Naruto.

"What? How do you know and who are these then?" asked Kakashi, again surprised by Naruto's level of intuition and deduction.

"These are back up so that the other two can get Gaara out and take him to the main stronghold, or delay us for some reason. I found traces of chakra all over the village, these two are a little weaker than the ones that kidnapped Gaara." said Naruto getting back to thinking why the Akatsuki had back up in the first place.

"I see," said Kakashi. "Well that means that we have to take these two out, fast and before dawn."

"Yes, let's go tell Sakura and Chiyo-sama to get ready for the Akatsuki," said Naruto before sushining back to the spot where Sakura and Chiyo were waiting.

"There are two Akatsuki coming at us from there," said Naruto pointing in the general direction where he had seen them. "We have to take these two down, and before dawn. Get ready." Naruto said to both Sakura and Chiyo.

"Crap, that means these two are not the ones that kidnapped the Kazekage?" asked Sakura as she put her gloves on and got her medical kit ready for immediate use.

"Humph, these younglings are eager for a fight, maybe I should just let my puppets do the fighting," said Chiyo and she opened a scroll and summoned two of her puppets.

"Sakura, stay close to Chiyo-sama. I will attack the shorter one to distract him, you three take the swordsman down as fast as possible," said Kakashi.

"Kakashi-sensei, be careful the shorter one is…an Uchiha!" Naruto said shocking both Kakashi and Sakura. Naruto, remembered Fukasaku's training against an Uchiha, do not look in the eyes and always keep an outlet to make sure one can break out of a genjutsu. Naruto quickly made a shadow clone and it disappeared into the darkness.

"Everybody ready?" asked Kakashi, whispering. When the other three nodded, he pulled up his hitai-ate, revealing the Sharingan and said "Go!" As if on cue, the two Akatsuki came in their view and stopped.

As soon as the two Akatsuki stopped, Kakashi was on them. They did not have time to react as Kakashi kicked the shorter of the two, square on the chest, and then attacking him with Tai jutsu, solely intent on taking the fight away from his comrades. Kisame turned to attack but came face to face with two puppets, completely armed and ready. Kisame snarled before jumping back, only to see an oncoming fist. He pulled Samehada in front of him blocking the punch but miscalculated the amount of force behind the punch. Sakura's fist connected with tremendous crash and sent Kisame flying. Naruto was on Kisame in an instant, rasengan at the ready. He drove his rasengan into Samehada, driving Kisame into the ground and creating a small crater.

"Damn, you ninjas don't give a break do you?" said Kisame, as he coughed some blood but climbed out of the crater unscathed. "I guess I have to go full out," he murmured before pulling the wrapping away from Samehada.

"So you are the famous swordsman Kisame, and that is the fabled Samehada? Boy I thought that it would look better than a dead fish," said Naruto in a mocking voice, clearly trying to enrage the swordsman. He had confronted only one swordsman of the mist in his life before Zabuza Momochi, and insulting a swordsman's sword really tended to make them angry.

"Yeah, me too when I first saw it up close but then seeing as how the sword's shape is really useful in battle I was satisfied." Kisame grinned as he said that before charging at Sakura. It did not work because he got body-tackled by one of Chiyo's puppets from his blind side. Sakura did not get attacked but Samehada crashed down on the puppet's head and completely obliterated it. Naruto was on the move; he quickly pulled out ten shurikens and threw them before doing the "Shadow shuriken technique," the ten multiplied to a hundred and fell on Kisame in a spiral, almost forming a dome around him. Naruto was not done; he quickly made two shadow clones and attacked Kisame with first class, coordinated Tai jutsu. All Kisame could do was defend himself, that shuriken technique had taken him by a surprise, not many ninjas appreciated the art of weapons anymore, and that shuriken technique was one of the oldest techniques in the book made to incapacitate an opponent.

"Hey brat," shouted Kisame. "Who the hell are you, how come I have not seen you in any bingo books before?"

"I do not like to advertise my existence," Naruto shot back at Kisame, as he came at Kisame again with his clones.

"Smart kid," thought Kisame before doing a few quick hand seals and a dragon rose, right from the mud and attacked one of Naruto's clones. The clone vanished in a puff, giving Naruto time to attack, he also did a few quick hand seals and the mud dragon was cut in half by a wind blade. Just as Naruto was about to attack Kisame with his clones, a mud dome rose from the ground and trapped Kisame from neck to toe. Naruto looked around to see Sakura, holding the ram seal, her brows were furrowed and she was pumping a lot of chakra to keep the jutsu going.

"Take him out fast Naruto, I can't hold him for long," Sakura said, she was already breathing a little hard; beads of sweat was forming on her forehead. It didn't take much convincing; Naruto formed a rasengan with extra density, than a normal rasengan, and shoved it into Kisame's head. Sakura's knees buckled and she slid to the ground, breathing hard. As the mud that covered Kisame's body disappeared, Naruto saw a shift, like a genjutsu disappearing. Suddenly, the features of the body changed and it turned from scaly blue to normal human skin. There wasn't anything left of the head, but Naruto was sure that the face, if it was still intact, would have also shown a different person and not Kisame.

"Damn, I should have known this would happen, Kisame is one of the strongest members of the Akatsuki." Naruto had fought another Akatsuki named Zetsu before, and it had turned out to be a fake also, though it was more like a really sturdy clone than anything. Naruto looked towards the direction where Kakashi was standing facing off against Itachi, both stood stock still not moving a muscle, it looked like they were having a stare battle, as none of them were blinking.

"Naruto, do not distract Kakashi-sensei, he had this fight before, and he was in the hospital for more than a month because he lost to Itachi, This time he has come prepared, I think we should trust him." Sakura said as she came to stand beside Naruto, also looking at the two combatants.

"Sakura, he was beaten by the real Itachi, this one is a fake," said Naruto putting emphasis on the word real as he pointed to the body that once resembled Kisame. Sakura gasped, before looking back at Kakashi with concern. "We have to warn him, I think I can break him out of the genjutsu, can you distract that other man?" asked Sakura she was already gathering her chakra to pull Kakashi out.

"Yes, I think I can keep him long enough for you to inform Kakashi of the situation. Go, as soon as I attack Itachi, ready?" Sakura nodded. Naruto charged at Itachi and, as he was taught by Jiraiya, instead of looking at his eyes, he stared at his body, mainly Itachi's legs. Naruto vaulted over Kakashi and did a spike kick, driving his heel into Itachi's shoulder bone as hard as possible. Itachi fell clutching his left shoulder, and he heard movement behind alerting him that Sakura had pulled Kakashi out of the genjutsu battle. Not looking around, Naruto attacked him, and was answered with well coordinated counters to all the Tai jutsu combinations that he threw at Itachi.

"Are you a student of the Jounin named Might Gai? It seems you are using his form, not looking at the opponent's face but his body and legs to predict his movements and attacks, a very impressive form against people with ocular powers I might add." Itachi was quietly contemplating as to who this blonde teen was. When he had visited Konoha before to check whether they had a jinchuuriki at all, he had not sensed demonic chakra in anybody. Yet this boy was wearing a Konoha headband, and jinchuurikis were not allowed to change their villages, so who exactly is this boy and where was he all this time?

"No, I am not Might Guy's student, I was taught in the way of Shinobis by Jiraiya of the Sannin," Naruto replied, he had read Itachi's chakra signature, it was a clone. A clone that could endure a lot of hits and that could relay its information to the user instantly, not after it is destroyed.

"Oh I see, so you traveled with him and did not stay in Konoha, like the rest of the teens your age?" he asked, if Jiraiya had taken an apprentice then the council, especially Danzo, would have known about it, why wasn't he informed, or could it be that Danzo did not know about this boy at all. It just made the Akatsuki's job a lot easier if Konoha did not even know that they had a jinchuuriki. Before Naruto could answer, Kakashi intervened.

"I take it that you are an imposter, or a clone but not the real Itachi?" Kakashi stated more than asked as he came up to stand beside Naruto.

"Yes, as always your deduction is accurate, in fact I was surprised that you did not realize that when you first attacked me with your Sharingan," said Itachi "It seems I have done all that was required of me." As soon as Itachi finished his statement, his body split into several ravens.

"Well then, since that is done with let us resume our search for the young Kazekage," said Chiyo, reminding everybody why they were here in the first place.

"Yes, let's go," agreed Kakashi as they all started to move in the direction where they had sensed the two Akatsuki members before.

"Naruto, I want you to use your chakra sensor and sense how many human chakra signatures there are in the vicinity," said Kakashi, he had only sensed two chakra signatures. Naruto nodded and widened his search as far as he could, he located the two Akatsuki members just a few miles ahead and four more rapidly moving from the direction of Suna directly towards their location, it would, at least, take the four new people an hour to get here.

"I sense six," said Naruto, Kakashi was not as surprised as Sakura, who spun around.

"Are you sure Naruto, if there are five Akatsuki members with Gaara, then this mission is a failure already," Sakura was certain that two Akatsuki members were enough, but taking down five criminals of S-ranked ninjas required a battalion of soldiers.

"No, there are only two Akatsuki; the four that I sensed earlier are Might Gai and his team," replied Naruto, maybe this mission will not be as difficult as he thought it could be.

"And what of the Kazekage boy, did you not sense him at all?" asked Chiyo, making Naruto realize that he had not sensed a chakra pulse from Gaara at all. That could only mean that either Gaara was suppressing it or he was…dead.

"SHIT!" shouted Naruto before putting more chakra into his legs and with a burst of speed started moving towards the base where he had sensed the two Akatsuki members before.

"Wait! Naruto! Damn, he is not going to listen, Sakura stay with Chiyo and follow us in exactly fifteen minutes, I am going in after Naruto," said Kakashi before rushing after the blonde.

"Darn how could I have been so dumb, I feel like a total idiot? I should have noticed that Gaara had no pulse, did these bastards kill him?" thought Naruto as he moved towards his target as fast as possible. He stole a glance behind him only to see a silver haired Cyclops following him. "Okay, so they have not abandoned me, good I don't think I am ready to take these guys out alone. Okay, Ero-sannin said that without the experience I was as strong as any ANBU squad captain, so with Kakashi I think we should be able to take down the two Akatsuki, even though they are the real deal." Naruto landed in front of a tunnel that snaked its way into a very a mountain.

Kakashi landed beside Naruto a few moments later. "Naruto, what were you thinking charging in like that, do not let your emotions cloud your judgment." Kakashi admonished Naruto, even though he was whispering it was clear that he was unhappy with Naruto's rash decision to move in by himself.

"Don't worry Kakashi-sensei, I have a plan so hear me out," said Naruto as he explained what he thought they could do get the Akatsukis. "You know as well as I do that these ninjas are S-class, and we also know exactly how strong S-class ninjas are, they are not invincible. As far as I know about you, you are an S-ranked Shinobi yourself, so my plan is to charge in and create a distraction. Then you can go in and take out at least one of them as fast as possible, and then we can take the second member easily. I assume that you have given Sakura and Chiyo-sama a little bit of time before they join us?" After Kakashi nodded, Naruto dispelled the clone that he had created before his fight with Kisame and created a new one. This clone quickly disappeared, moving in as silently as possible.

"Ah, shadow clone. Very clever but quite ineffective, if they find your clone then they know that you are at least close to them," said Kakashi, as he tried to think why in the world he never used shadow clones for scouting, it was simple but very effective method.

"While they know I am close, I know exactly where they are, and it is still better than trying to scout by yourself and getting caught," said Naruto as he quickly checked his pouch to see how many shurikens, kunais, and explosive tags he had. As they waited for Naruto's clone to return, they were joined by Sakura and Chiyo.

"Why are you guys just sitting here, I thought we were going to attack and get Gaara?" asked Sakura.

"Yea that was the idea, but Naruto here preferred a little scouting, which, in my opinion, was a smart move. If we know the enemy's location we can formulate a strategy to take them down quickly," Kakashi said, sounding a little proud of Naruto, even though technically Naruto was still not his student.

"Oh, but he is not really scouting, he is just relaxing," said Sakura sounding a little lost when Kakashi said that Naruto wanted to do a little scouting.

"No, he is relaxing because his clone is doing the scouting," Kakashi said, he also wanted to relax but Sakura's questions was interrupting him constantly.

"Guys, my clone just killed itself. The two Akatsuki members are just waiting right now, it seems like they knew we were going to be coming after them. Gaara is at the corner of the cave and is being guarded by what looked like a big clay dragon. Are you guys ready?"

"Yes, as long as you do not interfere in my fight," said Chiyo, as if she had already decided to fight no matter what the situation was.

"Who are you going to fight?" asked Naruto, he was always interested when old people wanted to fight, it usually meant that the fight was going to be long and usually were strong fighters with awesome jutsus.

"I will fight Sasori," said Chiyo, who was also her student and grandson.

"Okay, we will take care of the other guy, he looks like he works under Sasori, so he is the weaker of the two," deducted Naruto.

"So how do you plan to attack?" asked Sakura, she was not a tactical or strategic Shinobi, she needed a plan that she could follow to use her medical skills effectively when needed.

"Naruto is going to use his speed to enter and hide, and use stealth to attack the second Akatsuki member. Chiyo-sama and I will enter and face them, while Sakura, stay behind us, and cover us if needed." Kakashi knew this plan worked quite well with all the former members of team seven. Naruto was not a member, but he hoped that Jiraiya-sama had taught him the importance of team work. "Okay, go!" Naruto vanished, as soon as Kakashi's last syllable left his mouth, surprising Chiyo again.

"Is that the yellow flash of Konoha?" she asked a little hesitantly because she thought he would be older than a teen.

"No," said Kakashi immediately, he did not want to talk about Naruto's past, not with the Akatsuki so close. "I think we better move in."

Kakashi, Chiyo, and Sakura walked in what appeared to be a cavern. There was a little stream running at the side and the two Akatsuki members were seated, and one looked like he was bored out of his mind. "Alright which one of you wants to experience my art hnn?" asked the blonde Akatsuki as he stood up. The other Akatsuki was hunched over, and had what appeared to be a tail, but it was made of steel. Chiyo quickly laid down her scroll did a few hand signs, and with a puff of smoke there were ten battle-ready puppets in front of them.

"Sasori, what are you waiting for?" asked Chiyo, her eyes narrowed, and an immense amount of killing intent was flowing out of her.

"Deidara move back," said a raspy voice as Sasori moved forward. Chiyo motioned with her hand and all the puppets attacked at once. As soon as the puppets attacked, Naruto attacked the other member of the Akatsuki. He appeared behind the Akatsuki and punched him, yet it was the force behind the punch that surprised every-one. Deidara flew almost fifty feet before crashing into a wall that formed a little crater where he crashed. When he turned around, he was a little amused to see the jaws of Sakura and Kakashi on the floor.

Kakashi recovered when he saw the red hue that surrounded Naruto's golden eyes. "Sage mode, and no morphing, he must have mastered it completely." Kakashi thought but quickly pushed down his urge to ask and moved his head band to reveal his Sharingan. Naruto noticed that unlike the regular Sharingans, Kakashi's did not have tomes anymore instead it appeared like a three sided shuriken where each edge had a protruding angle that curved and connected with the end of the edge of the following side (just look up Kakashi's Mangekyou).

"Hmm, more talented than I thought, he mastered the Mangekyou Sharingan without being an Uchiha; I did not think that was possible!" he mused as he slowly stalked towards the body that had crashed into the wall. He had sensed a chakra spike just before his punch connected, Naruto has long since learned to never under estimate an opponent, even the weakest of them could pull out unbelievable feats when facing a stronger, or an overconfident opponent. He suddenly stopped as he realized that there was a chakra signature to his left and snapped his head there to see the blonde haired Akatsuki member hanging upside down from the ceiling in the farthest corner of the cavern. He gave Naruto a lopsided grin, but his eyes seemed to search Naruto's face for something.

"Hey boy, you look like you are not even out of your teens, but the techniques you use are quite dandy, are you also an avid believer of art hnn?" he asked, for some reason this young boy showed potential and experience well beyond his age, if Deidara had to guess, this power could be coming from a jinchuuriki. But he also knew shinobis like Itachi, and their intellect and tactical use of jutsus made even jinchuurikis look like baby wannabes. Maybe this blonde was another example of genius prodigy, or some clan that granted him the strength and power that the boy seemed to have, and the jutsus he used seemed like Kekkei Genkai because he hadn't seen anybody else move with such speed and hit with so much power.

Naruto returned the lopsided grin with his trademark foxy smile, but said in a cold and indifferent voice "In battle there is no such thing as art or beauty. If you find your explosions and fireworks are a work of art then I suggest you get some medical help, because they are just what they are, a tool to end life. As for a believer of art, yes but for me art is something that makes life more peaceful, aesthetic, so shut your crap about art before I shut it for you." As Naruto finished his speech, Deidara's face took on a look of disdain, which then turned to anger when Naruto threatened him. Nobody insulted the great artist Deidara and got away with it, and with that thought Deidara moved his hands forwards in a thrusting motion and out came several fist sized spiders, they were all made of clay.

"Take this you insolent fool, today you will meet your doom in the form of my magnificent art of destruction," screamed Deidara in glee as he was about to see the end of another genius who was too proud of himself and his luck begotten genes to appreciate the beauty his art. His delight did not last long as Naruto put his hands together in the form of a tiger seal. For a brief second nothing happened but then, the wind in the cavern began to shift and change, the temperature rose at least ten degrees and it seemed like all the air in the cavern was being sucked by a huge vacuum cleaner. When Sakura looked at Naruto, she realized it was Naruto who was doing all this, but was confused when she saw strange symbols and markings were coming out of Naruto's arms, like a 3D projection. Neither Sakura, nor Chiyo had seen anything like this before, Deidara and Sasori also stood frozen just as baffled by his display of awe inspiring power over nature. It was only Kakashi who had a faint inkling of what might be going on, but he could not be sure as he had never seen fuuinjutsu of this caliber at work before. In fact Kakashi was not even sure this was fuuinjutsu, he had no idea that fuuinjutsu could be used in this way at all. It was only that he recognized some of the markings that were coming off Naruto's arms.

"If my line of thinking is correct then this type of fuuinjutsu is much more complex and of much higher level that what I am or even Jiraiya-sama is capable of. What is this kid capable of?" thought Kakashi as the air that seemed to be sucked in actually formed a fierce vortex that surrounded Naruto, and even though it looked like the vortex was very strong, it was under Naruto's complete control as it only moved in a perfect circular trajectory around Naruto and disappeared once it had cut the clay spiders into dust, rendering them useless. Throughout this whole time Naruto was constantly glaring at Deidara, and his hand formed a medium sized rasengan, but it was purple in color. Kakashi's Sharingan showed him that the rasengan was far denser than a regular rasengan, hence the change in color form light blue to purple. In his other palm, it appeared that Naruto was holding a circular sphere but made only of air.

"Surrender now, or else you will feel the edge of my chakra," said Naruto in an eerily quiet tone, but there was no argument that it held barely contained fury that could come flooding in at any moment. Sasori knew that this lad was not to be messed with, and that he was well beyond Deidara's ability to take him down. The only option that was left was to flee, so Sasori's tail shot out with as much force he could muster and drove right through the ceiling of the cavern. There was a mini explosion, but as it died down, everybody could see the huge hole that had formed in the middle of the ceiling. Morning sunlight streamed in from the hole, it was probably during the dawn of the next day.

"Deidara, we have what we came for, take the demon binding and go, do not stop until you have reached the base. I will hold them off for as long as possible. Go now while you still can, the rest of the mission is up to you," said Sasori in his perpetual raspy voice. Deidara had also come to the same conclusion, so he clapped his hands twice. Naruto was confused until he saw the clay dragon that was sleeping at the corner of the cavern rise swiftly and flew towards Deidara with impossible speed. Deidara saluted quickly and jumped on top of the dragon.

"I will see you later boy, and next time I will make sure you feel my art before you meet death," he shouted as the dragon carried him towards the Akatsuki base with speed that no living animal could have achieved. As Naruto saw Gaara's limp body on the floor, his rage seemed to return doubly, newly fueled by Gaara's condition. He turned towards Sasori, and there was murder in his eyes. He simply vanished and then he was on top of Sasori driving the purple rasengan squarely into his back. Much to everyone's astonishment, Sasori began to laugh. There was so much that these simple minded fools did not know. As the smoke cleared, Naruto saw why Sasori was laughing, there was a huge shield, shaped like a mask that covered Sasori's entire back, and was also the reason why he always stayed in a hunched position. Because of the rasengan there was a long crack running perpendicularly running across the entire shield. That deadly tail was also an extension of the shield; it started where the shield ended in a curved tip at the base of Sasori's back. As the remains of the Akatsuki robes fell away from his body, everyone was stunned at what they saw. Naruto jumped away from Sasori's back, Kakashi's eyes widened; the body was composed of inorganic materials only. Sakura gasped loudly, and Chiyo could only look on in sorrow filled eyes at what atrocity her grandson had turned himself into.

"Yes, look at my body, and be afraid for that is what you should feel when you mere mortals gaze upon my immortal form," rasped out Sasori, his non-living eyes glinting with malice.

"Oh my boy, what have you done to yourself?" said Chiyo, as she looked at her grandson but only saw a puppet, non-living non-feeling.

"What every puppet master should do, and what you were afraid to do. Look at me, look at this perfect form, an immortal form that the human body could never achieve because it is weak and rots away with time. But this body, It will never age, never rot, it will always remain strong and powerful," Sasori proclaimed proudly, though with his raspy voice it was a miracle he actually proclaimed anything at all. Naruto on the other hand was busy scanning the insect like body to pinpoint the source of the chakra signature that he was feeling coming from Sasori, just as he would from any living person. A quick scan showed him that it was coming from the middle of the chest area where lied a tube that spread the chakra to the rest of the inorganic body via artificial chakra transponders that was set very much like a nervous system through the rest of the body. All he had to do was taking the source and destroy it; the rest will take care of itself. As the shield fell off Sasori's back, it clearly, Naruto saw a circular outline where the source of Sasori's chakra was coming from.

"I had warned you not to play with things that you could not understand! I had warned you that changing bodies and exchanging souls from living objects to a puppet could make the sustenance very unstable. I don't have to look to know that you cannot utilize your chakra to its full potential, can you?" asked Chiyo with such confidence that the others did not have to look anywhere to verify it to be a fact. With a wave of Chiyo's hand all the ten puppets exploded into action and they all attacked Sasori at once.

"Take a look at Gaara, see if you can help him, go" said Naruto as Sakura ran towards Gaara's prone body. "All right, I have to get close and take that heart out, that will at least contain him if it doesn't right out kill him," thought Naruto. He saw Kakashi was intently monitoring the fight between Sasori's and Chiyo-sama's six remaining puppets. "Did you find a hole in his defenses yet?" asked Naruto hoping that Kakashi's Sharingan eyes had caught some flaw that had missed previously. He couldn't ask Chiyo either, she was having a hard time as it is in fighting Sasori with her puppets.

"No, his tai-jutsu is even better than my comrade Might Gai, and the enhanced strength due to his inorganic body allows him to keep going even after sustaining injuries that would fell even the toughest of humans. If we have to take him down, we have to rake him down with something extremely powerful, even stronger than your condensed rasengan. I don't have anything that is stronger than your rasengan, but if you do, I and Chiyo-sama can work together to give you a small but clear opening for you to take him down," Kakashi had a feeling that Naruto had a lot more than he was showing, so he decided to give Naruto one more chance to surprise him again.

"Yes, I have one more attack but it is really risky."

"What do you mean by risky?"

"The attack is large enough to bring down this whole cavern, I am not sure that is safe, especially for Gaara."

"Okay you prepare the attack, I will talk to Chiyo-sama and Sakura," said Kakashi as he created a copy of himself and it ran towards Sakura while the original moved towards Chiyo, where she was fighting Sasori with four of her remaining puppets. Naruto pushed his hand out, and swirling chakra quickly took the form of a rasengan, now came the hard part. His face contorted as he focused all his attention in adding the wind Chakra to the swirling mass of regular chakra, until a year ago he needed clones, but Jiraiya had force him to try making the Rasengan and the Rasenshuriken without the aid of clones so that he could reserve his chakra. While it did take a large amount of concentration, it did save quite a bit of chakra that he needed for creating clones. Slowly the shape of a slowly rotating shuriken formed with the fast rotating rasengan at its center, the glow from the Rasenshuriken filled the cavern. Naruto looked up from the attack to see Sakura vanish into the tunnels with Gaara's body, and Kakashi and Chiyo had also retreated back towards the entrance of the cavern. The only thing that was keeping Sasori from charging right at Naruto was Chiyo's two puppets.

"GO!" Naruto shouted as he vanished in a golden flash and appeared in front of Sasori, the Rasenshuriken was squarely pushed into the circular outline which marked the source of his chakra. The rasengan disappeared into Sasori's body before expanding from inside outwards and formed a huge dome of immense chakra. From outside Sakura, Kakashi, and Chiyo saw the whole structure that made the cavern came tumbling down on Sasori and Naruto as it could not withstand the force of the attack.

**Mwahahaha, cliffhangers! Okay now I know you guys must be epically angry at me till now because this chapter came out like a millennia after the previous one but I guess I should give my sorry reason for being this late. I have been in California for the whole time now and I was so busy that I haven't even caught up with whatever is going on the manga of Naruto (I am sure amazing stuff has happened by now). So along with juggling classes, lab work and my cousin's wedding, I just did not have time to concentrate on writing but I promise that I will make this up to you now that I am back in Arizona, and the wedding is over, I have submitted my research paper, and am hoping for an A, oh and just finished writing this chapter. Hey, some people in review have been saying that I have made Naruto too string at the age of 12! Guys I am starting from around the Shippuden timeline and he is fifteen, just making sure you got the fact right. Again I am really sorry for the delay. Let me know what you think of this chapter and please review. **


	6. The Alliance

**The Alliance:**

"NARUTO!" the wail came out of Sakura before she realized or thought of what she was doing, it was instinctive. At the moment Kakashi, and Chiyo were also feeling the same way as they saw their comrade sacrifice his life for Gaara. As Chiyo thought of Gaara, her head snapped towards the ground where the prone body of the young Kazekage was laid, forgotten at the moment because of the recent tragic events. Chiyo recovered quickly and knelt down next to the body, placing her hands over his heart in an attempt to heal the Kazekage, only to realize that he was not breathing. Chiyo looked at the pink haired medic nin and put her hand on her forearm, letting her know that her priority was saving the life of the man her friend died for. Sakura nodded and knelt down next to the sand user's body, and run a quick diagnostic.

"Chiyo-sama he is alive and his breathing is extremely shallow, if we don't get him to a hospital immediately, he will not survive. I am afraid I cannot do anything by myself to help him recover; I need at least another experienced medic to help me in this task. Chiyo nodded before smiling and looking up from Gaara's body.

"Who do you think taught the slug-princess some of the advanced medical nin-jutsu that she knows?" asked the puppet user with a look of grim amusement on her face. Sakura pushed her sudden flare of anger at the insult of her master down because right now she needed the assistance of the puppet-user to save Gaara's life.

"How do we propose we do this?" asked Sakura, not knowing the best course to save Gaara's failing life.

"I want you to keep his heart from failing while I apply my jutsu, once my jutsu is complete, Kazekage-sama will not need medical assistance anymore," replied Chiyo, which made Sakura wonder what type of technique Chiyo-sama was talking about that will not only bring him back from the jaws of death but will also make him well enough to not need any more medical help! Sakura nodded her head and placed her hands on Gaara's heart as she applied her jutsu to keep the heart moving, albeit really weakly.

Kakashi looked in the horizon and could make out four silhouettes, now without the Sharingan, team Gai was finally here, what the hell kept them so long? Kakashi was brought out of thoughts as Pakkun ran up to him. "Well my job here is done Kakashi, I have lead Team Gai to you. I will now take my leave," replied the dog summon, with his ever present gloomy expression pasted to his face. Kakashi nodded and the summon disappeared in a puff of white smoke. By now Team Gai was close enough for Kakashi to make out the trademark green colored spandex suits that Might Gai and his clone of a student, Rock Lee, always wore. Behind them ran the Hyuuga prodigy Neji and the weapon's mistress Tenten. "I am finally here my eternal rival!" came a scream as Gai and his team reached the little group in front of what looked like a collapsed cave.

"Kakashi-sensei, um…where is Uzumaki-san?" asked Tenten as she peered at all the people present there. Kakashi sighed and looked down, and a strangled sob broke through Sakura's composure.

"I see," said Neji as he sat down on one of the boulders that had come free as the cave had collapsed. "Are you absolutely sure that he is dead?" asked Neji as he looked at the cave with his Byakugan, as if expecting Naruto to shoot out of the cave any moment.

"I do not believe that he is dead," came the unexpected reply from the man who was almost dead a few moments ago. Gaara sat up with Sakura's help as Chiyo's frame sank to the ground. As if on cue there was a sudden trembling that everybody felt coming from the cave. Then the collapsed entrance exploded out and there stood Naruto, panting like he was about to collapse, but instead he came out and dragged the remains of Sasori with him. With the help of Neji and Lee he dragged the body all the way to the form of Chiyo and laid her grandson in front of her. She croaked out her gratitude as she laid her hand on her grandson's forehead with a content smile as the last breath left her body. Gaara stood up, with the help of Sakura and walked towards Naruto.

"Thank you Naruto," said Gaara, and to every-one's utter shock the young Kazekage's lips parted as he smiled. It was the first time the Konoha ninjas had seen the container of the Shukaku give a genuine smile.

Naruto gave his signature smile and rubbed the back of his head. "No problem dude, by the way this is the second time I had to save your sorry ass now." A cold silence descended as everyone was shocked at the insult that Naruto had thrown on the Kazekage.

"The second time? I do not recall you having to save me before at all!" said Gaara; it was his own way of joking as he knew full well what Naruto meant by having to save him the first time.

"Whatever, how's the sand-ball doing?" asked Naruto, he and Gaara both knew the nick-name that Naruto had given to one-tailed beast and he was keeping the secret that Gaara was a jinchuuriki from the people who did not know the secret.

Gaara eyes blanked out as he went into his mindscape to have a conversation with his maniacal prisoner and an unwanted ally the Shukaku of the Sand. Yet when he reached the sealing inside his mindscape, it was empty, blank like that part had never existed in his mind ever before. "I cannot sense him!" said Gaara in a dazed voice, almost unable to believe that the Shukaku was gone.

"They completed the extraction then," concluded Kakashi. Now the Akatsuki had two tailed beasts in their possession. The rumors that they had already gotten the Niibi was confirmed when Kumogakure held a memorial day for the sacrifice of Yugito Nii in the service of the village. If Naruto remembered correctly, she was taken out by the second most fearsome duo in the Akatsuki organization also referred to as the Zombie Combo because apparently they were 'not killable'.

"I think we should be heading back, Suna must be awaiting their Kazekage's return," said Gai as he brought the main issue back to everyone's attention.

"Yes, but as you can see Naruto is in no condition to travel," said Sakura. She had already run a preliminary diagnostic of Naruto's condition he was suffering from several small wounds and a few broken ribs due to the collapse of the cave. If Sakura's chakra reserves were not as low after treating Gaara, she would have no problem treating Naruto.

"That should be no problem," Gaara's gourd disappeared as the sand inside the gourd and of the gourd formed a very comfortable looking cushion. "Naruto, I believe this is the second time I am helping you too," said Gaara, never breaking his monotonous voice but there was twinkle of amusement in his eyes.

"Yosh, let us return to Suna and show just how bright our flames of youth truly are!" cried Lee as he and his similarly clad sensei started marching back towards the village hidden in the leaves.

"I do not understand why the Konoha ninjas were so adamant about me not killing him during the Chuunin exams," muttered Gaara much to Naruto's chagrin.

Two Days Later

The trip back to Suna was quite uneventful, and a little frustrating due to so much talk about 'Flames of Youth'. Kakashi got so irritated that he told Gai to a Tai Jutsu rematch once they returned back in Konoha if Gai could keep his mouth shut for the rest of the way to Suna. Gai had no choice but to do so because he had been waiting for such an opportunity for nearly nine years since Kakashi had beaten him in their Chuunin finals. Naruto and Gaara were immediately hospitalized and it was now Kankuro's turn to pester them for being bed ridden.

"Naruto, we have gathered new intelligence on the Akatsuki members," said Gaara once he was alone in their shared hospital room. Naruto's face instantly lost its amusement and became steely. Gaara knew full well of Naruto's past experience with the Akatsuki.

"The only information that Ero-sannin's spy network was able to gather is that the Zombie combo was unleashed a few months ago and they are the ones that are primarily on the hunt for the stronger bijuus," said Naruto as a thoughtful expression crossed his face and he tapped his chin with his right index finger. Gaara frowned thinking that the new information that Suna had gathered could prove useful if Konoha decided to take an active step against the criminal organization.

"According to our new Intel, the Akatsuki have placed their sights on the Yonbi (four-tails) and the Rokubi (six-tails). Both the jinchuurikis reside outside the protection of their own villages; these two will not stand much chance if they were attacked by Hidan and Kakuzu. I think that they will be sending their strongest after the Rokubi because it seems that he has been casing some major problems for the Akatsuki." Gaara's Intel as usual was thorough and had proof to prove his points, Gaara never did something that was incomplete. Naruto's interest, though, was piqued by Gaara's last statement.

"Hold on Gaara, what kind of problems is the Rokubi making for the Akatsuki?" asked Naruto in an excited voice, someone else had joined the resistance against the Akatsuki, and the six-tailed beast's jinchuuriki no less!

"Well as per our information, two of Akatsuki hide-outs were destroyed with threatening notes burned inside the collapsed caves. One of them clearly said that if they tried to hunt anymore bijuus, the Rokubi will personally come to destroy Akatsuki and all its members," replied Gaara. If his research was anything to go by, the Raijuu was a power-house. A god of thunder, he was best known for his devastating attacks and his capabilities for destruction rivaled that of the Kyuubi itself, although the Raijuu was known to dislike violence and only resorted to it if it was absolutely necessary.

"Have you made any attempts to find him? Ero-sannin had personally tried to find him a few years back but he could find no trail of the Rokubi," said Naruto. It was the ten-year-old Naruto's brilliant theory that if the Akatsuki had formed an organization to find and kill all the jinchuurikis, then the hosts' of the Bijuus should band together to fight the Akatsuki. It was a very straight-forward thinking of a kid, but the idea was a sound one and it had given Jiraiya a pause. What the ten-year-old had said made very much sense, why had none of the other 'older' and 'more experienced' shinobis had not thought of this. Sure the Akatsuki was a fearsomely strong and dangerous criminal organization, but if all the jinchuurikis banded together to fight the threat, Jiraiya doubted that Akatsuki could do much to stop them.

So to give Naruto's brilliant theory a try, Jiraiya had taken Naruto to meet the only other Jinchuuriki that was his own age, Gaara. His plan worked and Naruto was able to turn the Kazekage's youngest psychopathic boy into a friend and pull him out of his depression. Seeing this Jiraiya had sneaked himself and Naruto into Kumogakure to see if Naruto could form a positive bond with the high-nosed jinchuuriki of the Niibi. It took some time but Naruto and Yugito had formed a sibling-like relationship in a matter of few weeks, and after Yugito met Gaara, their bond only strengthened. Seeing his plan coming along quite well, the white haired Sannin had tried to have the Hachibi (eight-tails) join the trio, but the Raikage was completely against the idea and would not have his adopted brother mix with shady people Jiraiya of the Sannin. Realizing that arguing with the thick-skulled Raikage would only be a waste of his time Jiraiya had set out to find the other Jinchuurikis and ask them if they wanted to fight the group that was after their lives.

He had gone after the Gobi (five-tails) first seeing that the Sanbi (three-tails) was out of its dead jinchuuriki, and there was no way he was getting inside Iwagakure where the Yonbi resided five years ago, Gobi was the logical choice, but the man was completely against the idea. He was so full of his own power and control over the beast within him that he thought that if anybody dared to come after him, the hunters will be the ones that will get hunted. For the love of god there was no way of finding the Rokubi, so the Sannin decided to go to Takigakure and see if the Nanabi's (seven-tails) host had the brains to see that this was for their own good. Sadly this jinchuuriki was a patriot with a stick-up his ass for rules, he absolutely had to follow the rules to the T when it came to being a Shinobi, so he had declined the toad hermit's offer.

So after the alliance was made between the three jinchuurikis Naruto, Gaara, and Yugito; Jiraiya realized just how far behind Naruto was in controlling his bijuu in comparison to most of the other jinchuurikis. Many of the jinchuurikis could fully control their bijuus with Killer Bee being the most advanced among all the others. Therefore Jiraiya decided to train Naruto in using the fox chakra. For the next five years, Naruto didn't only train with the sages for normal Shinobi techniques and jutsus, he also started working on missions that Jiraiya, or his spy network assigned Naruto; he also started to train with the fox's chakra and its uses mostly under the toad hermit, and sometimes under Pa Fukasaku.

"I wish I could have, but the Rokubi is as elusive as ever," Gaara was now looking at some kind of chart, with many different colored lines and places with markings and arrows.

"Damn, he is good! What are you looking at?"

"This is the demographic chart of the Rokubi that Suna has made of his travels in the last seven years since he set out from his village. I have studied this map for a long time but I can find no definitive pattern to his movements and therefore I cannot predict where he might be in the future so that we can talk to him and make him realize the gravity of the situation that the Akatsuki has presented against him and others like him," replied Gaara as his eye brows rose as he noticed something. "The chart does show that he does not go more than a certain radius in any direction from one point, the cliffs just south of Kiri, I think he is overlooking the protection of his village away from the villagers and their constant badgering."

"Yeah," said Naruto as a sad look came over his face when he remembered how Gaara was treated when he was younger by the same people who now bow to him in respect. "I guess I am lucky in a way that none of the people in my village knows that I am a jinchuuriki, I don't know if I am strong enough to endure that kind of treatment and not lash out against the villagers." A small smile tugged at Gaara's smile and a mischievous gleam came to his eyes.

"I am sure you would have killed a few villagers just to keep them from bothering you again," said Gaara with an air of nonchalance that infuriated the blonde to no end.

"WHY YOU, I WILL GET YOU FOR THAT!" shouted Naruto as he jumped out of his bed ready to strangle the smiling Gaara instantly. Alas that was not to happen as just then the door to their room was flung open and in ran Temari as she took a good look at Gaara before scooping him in a motherly hug. Naruto stopped bawling immediately, he had learned long ago not to interfere with Temari when she was in an emotional state-of-mind or someone was going to get a big war-fan broken on top of their head. Not a pleasant feeling in the least. Gaara tapped Temari's shoulder, letting her know that he needed to breath and she let him go before kissing him on his bandaged the forehead.

"Gaara, how many times do I have to tell you that you have to use your ninjas when fighting. You know you are not responsible for each and every villager's life when you are there is a conflict going on," sighed Temari as she sat down next to Gaara and looked at their feet.

"I know, but this time they were here for me so it was only logical that they fight me," countered Gaara with his ever present monotone. Temari shook her head in denial but a small smile crept in her to her lips.

"You and your sentiments, sometimes I wonder why I let you hang out with Uzumaki in the first place!" she said as both siblings started smiling. Naruto also smiled, he had gotten used to the creepy humor that the siblings sometimes shared, and mostly in privacy because it unnerved any stranger and quite frankly Gaara's smile even freaked Baki (their genin instructor, and now their trusted advisor) out sometimes.

"Hey do you know when they are going to let us out, I am sure our wounds have already healed?" asked Naruto to Temari and her lips twisted in contemplation.

"Don't know, your teammate is in charge of your treatment, so you ask her when she gets here," said Temari. She looked at the clock mounted on their room and sighed. "I have to go for a meeting with the elders, so I will see you guys later." Temari got up, as did Naruto and Gaara. Temari stepped closer to Naruto and grabbed his shoulders. "Thank you Naruto, we owe you again," she said sincerely and kissed him on the cheek. BAM! Naruto and Temari jumped apart. Somebody had closed the door to their room quite forcefully for some reason. When Naruto looked at Gaara with a questioning look, he shrugged. Temari shook her head, whenever Naruto was in town nothing normality seemed to disappear in fear. "See ya later," she said and walked off the room. As soon as Temari left, their door opened again and a very red-faced Sakura came in carrying a tray of what appeared to be dressing.

"Sakura, how are you doing?" asked Naruto with a cheerful smile.

"Fine!" she answered angrily and pointedly turned away from him to check on Gaara's bandages. Naruto was confused, what happened to Sakura? Why was she so angry at him or was it that she was angry at something else.

"So how is everything going? You know I want to get out of the hospital," said Naruto trying to make conversation so that he could figure out what had the pink haired kunoichi so riled up.

"Ya you two will be discharged from here today evening, I think I forgot to bring something, I will send in another nurse to do the dressing," the kunoichi said before hurrying out of the room.

"Hmm, wonder what has got on her nerves today?" though Naruto until his thoughts were interrupted by the light chuckling coming from across the room. "What?" asked Naruto when he saw the Kazekage giving him a furtive look.

"It seems the medic-nin from Konoha has taken a liking to you Uzumaki," said Gaara before resuming his chuckling.

"How can you tell?" asked Naruto quite bewildered. The last thing he needed was girl advice from Gaara! No, even from a young age the redhead was a perceptive person, maybe he could tell what was going on inside a person's head by their actions and expressions.

"Well my first hint was the way she was distraught after your supposed death in the cavern, and then how she started to behave with you after she saw Temari kissing you, she thinks that there is something going on between you and my sister," said Gaara, and there was no deception or trickery involved in his voice. He was completely serious in his judgment.

"Oh great," huffed Naruto. "Now the girl I like thinks that I like someone else, it's over even before I could tell her how I feel about her!"

"So you like her too, now that is unexpected," said Gaara with in a delightful tone or as delightful as his monotonic voice could get. Naruto blushed a little realizing that he had just spilt beans about his feelings for Sakura; at least it was not to a total stranger. It was in front of one of his closest and best friends.

"So what do I do now? How do I clear this mess up without letting her know how I feel about her?" asked Naruto, if Gaara knew already might as well talk to him rather than willow in his own misery or worse mess it up by thinking up something stupid.

"Why not just tell her how you feel? That way you can clear away the misunderstanding and get the girl you like," said Gaara looking a little confused as to why his friend would want to hide his feelings.

"Look Gaara, I can understand why you are thinking that way. You are the youngest Kazekage this village has plus the people here respect you and worship the ground you walk on. No doubt you are also quite popular with the ladies due to your reputation and the legendary greatness of your power. On the other hand there is my situation. Neither am I a Kage nor am I popular in the village of Konoha, in other words there is nothing to go by when I am asking out a girl. Plus my year's teens are half clan heirs and half of them are extra ordinary due to their specialty in one Shinobi field or another. It will take me years to build a reputation for myself and a girl like Sakura is not just going to sit by, I bet there are guys who already want to marry her. Therefore I just want to be a good friend so that if I do find the courage to ask her out or something it wouldn't be awkward or embarrassing for her. Get it?" Naruto was so engrossed in his moment that he hadn't even realized that there was nurse standing by the door of their room, she probably he had his whole story and he had just made a fool of himself in front of a total stranger. Oh, why did this always happen to him? Kami had a personal vendetta to settle with Naruto Uzumaki!

"Ahem-ahem!" the nurse cleared her throat in the most clichéd manner ever, before walking farther inside the room. "I am here to check up on and change the dressing for Kazekage-sama (she gave a full-on sweeping bow to Gaara) and Uzumaki san?" here sentence ended in a question and she looked a little uncertainly towards Naruto, so the blonde haired jinchuuriki nodded saying that he was the other said person. She expertly changed the dressing on Naruto and Gaara's wounds but frowned as only minor scratches and in some cases little scars remained, in Naruto's case. It seemed Gaara's wounds were healing at a normal rate as his wounds were in almost the exact same state as they were the previous couple of days. After she was done, she looked satisfactorily at her work, nodded to Gaara and walked off with the tray that Sakura had brought in.

"Hey Gaara, how come your wounds have not healed already?" asked Naruto a little concerned for his friend's health.

"I believe you already know the answer to that question Uzumaki," replied Gaara, but when the blank look on Naruto's face remained, he sighed and continued. "I have not been able to communicate with the Shukaku, and last night I think I slept after a long time with no dreams or disturbance. So the only conclusion is that the Akatsuki were able to extract the Shukaku from me and even though I retained my abilities of the sand-armor and my control over sand, the accelerated healing abilities that comes with a bijuu's chakra is gone. I can also feel the lightness of my chakra; it is not as dense as it used to be when the Shukaku's chakra was constantly there along with my own."

Clarity dawned in the eyes of the toad hermit's apprentice as his mouth formed a little 'ahh'. "So how do you feel with the bijuu gone?" asked Naruto, he had wondered a lot how his life would have been different if the Fourth Hokage had not sealed the Kyuubi into him. What it would have been like to grow up in Konoha with the others? What kind of relations he would have formed with the people he grew up with? Gaara himself understood his friend's dilemma quite well; he himself had wondered more than few times what his life would have been like without the Shukaku. So he tried to be as indifferent as he could be without outright lying to his oldest friend.

"It feels, lighter, as if a big responsibility was taken away from me, a responsibility that people like us knows all too well. But there is also a hollow feeling, like something is missing from us, something that was a big part of us, that is just not there anymore," before Gaara could go any farther Naruto held his hand up.

"Alright, alright I get the picture, but now that you are not a jinchuuriki, what about the alliance? What about the things that we vowed to do together once we were strong enough to take on the Akatsuki ourselves? You know before what happened to you, it was just me and you, Yugito was killed. Now, I am alone against the Akatsuki," said the blonde teen much to the red-headed ex-jinchuuriki's dismay.

"Naruto, you are not alone in your fight against the Akatsuki, I am still there with you even though I am a jinchuuriki no more. But do not forget, I am still the Kazekage of Suna and my position grants me power over all the forces of Suna. If Konoha will have it, I would like to make an alliance between our villages, not just the friendly trade business but an actual alliance between the two Shinobi nations and their forces," the young Kazekage reprimanded his friend for thinking that Gaara had abandoned him just because the Shukaku was inside him no more.

"How can you decide, no wait how can I decide for the village of Konoha, you have to meet with the Hokage to finalize the deals, the treaties, the conditions and all that kind of stuff, I just can't do that for the whole village hidden in the leaves!" shouted Naruto, he was bewildered at Gaara's childish thinking that he alone could do everything needed to form an alliance between two Shinobi nations.

Gaara looked towards the window to the rest of Suna. "Uzumaki, do you really believe that I am as stupid as to suggest that you alone seal an alliance between two Shinobi nations? I am just offering the option to the village of Konohagakure. Tomorrow before your departure collect the necessary papers and one you reach Konoha hand them over to your Hokage. We will request the answer the next time our ambassador visits or your Hokage could send their ambassador here to inform us of the decision that Konoha finally makes, understand?" Gaara looked away from the window only to see his blonde friend already asleep.

One Day Later 

The three Shinobis from Konoha was standing at the entrance of Suna along with their escort party that considered the Kazekage, his siblings, their trusted advisor Baki, and various Suna citizens and residents.

"Well Kazekage-sama it was a pleasure that we were able to enjoy your hospitality for so long, but now it is time for us to return since the task we were here for is finished," said Kazekage bowing respectfully to Gaara. The young Kazekage nodded at this and Temari came forward and handed him the documents that Gaara had mentioned to the sleeping Naruto a day earlier. After discussing the same things with Kakashi, who had promptly agreed to carry out the task, Gaara was comfortable enough handing the confidential papers to Team seven. If not for the whole team, Gaara completely trusted his friend in being able to protect such crucial information from unwanted hands, and Kakashi's fame and previous accomplishments more than compensated for any weakness he might have displayed in the mission. Sakura also said her farewell and hugged Temari before stepping back as Naruto stepped forward. At first he clapped Kankuro in the shoulders and nodded at him before moving to Temari and giving her a quick hug and then finally stepped in front of Gaara.

"Ya know, I have half the mind of dragging you with me back to Konoha, but I guess these guys wouldn't stand much chance without their Kazekage," Naruto said as he smirked at the horrified expressions that formed on the faces of the people of Suna.

"Well I wish to do the same but I have a village to protect, and you are quite right, maybe they wouldn't stand much chance without me," said Gaara, quietly enjoying the many whisperings that broke out among the people of his village.

"Well I don't know whether this alliance that you want to form will happen or not but the alliance we formed will never break right?" asked Naruto as he extended his hand towards Gaara. The young Kazekage took and shook it.

"Never," he said almost symbolizing the long-standing pact that the two nations will form in the coming days.

**Whew! Took me a while but got it down. Now I was disappointed with the low number of reviews that I have been getting from the last few chapters, I think I scared my readers off taking such a long break! Anyhow, please keep the reviews coming; they are the only motivation I have to keep writing this story. Now, some people are starting to think that I have made an over-strong Naruto who can just stroll through any kind of obstacle. Well they are in for a surprise as they are going to see just where Naruto stands when he is compared to the Gods (and some unnaturally over powered ninjas) of Naruto-verse. Yes I have made a strong Naruto, guess why? Because he freaking grew up with the sages of Mount Myoboku, and trained under Jiraiya practically all his life! Who the hell wouldn't get strong after growing up in an environment where everybody that trained him is legendarily strong? Second, Naruto was never in Konoha, so he didn't put up a façade of happiness to cover up the sorrow and loneliness the canon Naruto felt while growing up, in my story he was never hated or ignored. He was treated like a normal person his whole life and was actually given the attention he deserved to come up to his full potential. Therefore neither is this Naruto weak, or excessively dumb like he was in Part 1 of Naruto plus we all know the amount of potential Naruto has as a ninja, I am just showing what Naruto would be like had he been given the same treatment as the other teens in Konoha his age. Maybe then it wouldn't come as a surprise that Naruto is the Namikaze/Uzumaki heir and the legacy of the Yondaime, his skills/accomplishments would speak for themselves. Now I am not saying this to drill the people who think I have made an over-powered Naruto, I am just saying what this story represents. Anyway, if you want to give me suggestions or wanna discuss the story in farther details, just shoot me a P.M. otherwise keep the reviews coming. Good day and HAPPY HALLOWEEN! **


	7. The Difference in Power

Story until now (summary of last chapter)

Naruto had survived fighting and defeating the two Akatsuki members that were charged with attacking Gaara. While they were at the hospital, we see how Naruto's efforts had formed a small alliance between the jinchuuriki of three different villages, and how Naruto began to train in controlling the power of the fox within him.

**The Difference in Power:**

Kakashi was walking towards training grounds after staring at the stone where the names of his dead comrades were inscribed for exactly one hour and thirty six minutes. He was asked by the Godaime Hokage to see how much more potential Naruto had for improvement, and how much stronger he could get given the right tutelage. It had been three days since they had returned to Konoha from their rescue mission. The return trip was quite uneventful until they entered the office of their drunken buxom Hokage.

Two Days Ago

"Kakashi-sensei why do we have to talk to baa-chan now? It's really late in the evening and she is probably drunk. She will be really pissed if we bothered her, and I am not in the mood for going through walls right now," replied the blonde jinchuuriki in a disgruntled voice. Kakashi nodded sagely but replied with a firm voice.

"Naruto, we have to turn in the report immediately, this is a mission of the highest class, and as such takes time to process, and you do want your payment as soon as possible don't you? Secondly, we have alliance papers. An actual Shinobi alliance between Suna and Konoha, can you imagine how important these documents are? These have to reach the Hokage's eyes with utmost haste; therefore we have to talk to her no matter what!" Kakashi's reply did not sit well with Naruto as he sped up with the last leg of their journey so that they could get to Konoha a little faster, followed by Kakashi and Sakura. Konoha's gates were closed as night had fallen and Naruto stood in front of it, unsure whether to jump in over the wall or was there a side-entrance into the village for residents and Konoha shinobis. Naruto had been to a lot of Shinobi villages and many of them did not take it lightly if their rules were broken even if the law-breakers were their own. Kakashi finally landed behind the blonde Shinobi and walked up to the gate and knocked three times. A small window in the gate opened and a masked man looked closely at them before asking.

"State your name and purpose!"

"Open the gate already, we have an S-rank mission submission of most urgency," said Kakashi in a bored tone as the masked ninja quickly recognized the fabled Kakashi Hatake due to his signature mask and the gravity-defying silver hair. He gave a short salute before opening a small door that was built inside the huge wall that surrounded Konoha from the main entrance gates. It didn't take long before Naruto was inside the Hokage's office, it looked like he had taken a liking to the way his master always entered the Godaime's office. In came Naruto through the window scaring the blonde Hokage so much that she spilled her sake on her recently completed paperwork after much convincing from Shizune.

"DAMN IT GAKI, DO YOU REALIZE WHAT YOU JUST DID?" shouted Tsunade at the top of her lungs; she did not need to re-do several hours of paper-work again just because one of her ninjas startled her.

"Your sake, your spill, your problem, don't blame me." Naruto replied quite non-chalantly getting on Tsunade's nerves even more. "Plus you can just have one of your clones do it again, now that you know what is on the paper-work, so do your clones, they will know where you needed to sign and stuff, so what is the big deal?" Naruto didn't realize that he had just given Tsunade the perfect way to solve all her paper-work problem, which also simultaneously saved his life as the Hokage cooled down a bit realizing what Naruto had just suggested. The doors to her office opened and Kakashi and Sakura came in, they were already sweating profusely because they had heard the Godaime Hokage's shout and did not want to face the over powered woman when she was pissed off. Kakashi had first-hand experience of Sakura's strength and he knew that Tsunade's was greater still, where as Sakura knew how much Tsunade's punches hurt, especially when she was mad, none of them wanted to go through that when they were tired and returning from a mission that was quite difficult and the return trip was very exhausting. Kakashi hesitantly stepped forward and started talking in a very meek and humble voice.

"Hokage-sama, the mission was a complete success; in fact the Kazekage was so pleased with our performance that he has asked for a complete Shinobi alliance between Konoha and Suna. Here are the documents for the alliance with the Kazekage's personal seal on it, and here is the already completed mission report, everything is in full details so that you can assess our performance accordingly." Kakashi put an emphasis on the word performance and Tsunade got the message that he had done his part in observing and mentioning where he thought Naruto stood skill-wise and how well he worked as a team. Tsunade's eyes grew wide at the copy ninja's words, she had been trying to do exactly that for nearly two years now but had been unsuccessful and it hadn't even been two weeks since Naruto's return, and it was Suna asking for the alliance! She snatched the documents off his hand before he decided to throw it on the wet desk and quickly scanned it confirming Kakashi's words that these were indeed the government papers required to start a Shinobi alliance between two villages.

"Baa-chan, can we go now? It is a beautiful evening and I still haven't had an actual tour of the village! Don't you think it's about time I got acquainted with the place where I will spend the rest of my life?" whined Naruto in the most annoying voice he could make, it definitely had an effect because the response was immediate.

"Yes, fine get lost! Sakura please show Naruto around the village and don't allow him to do something that will get him in prison or in trouble with the clans. You two are dismissed. Hatake you and I have to talk. Sakura send Shizune in on your way out will ya?" she heard a faint 'Hai' as the doors to her office closed behind her. A few moments later Shizune came in, her expression said she knew what she needed to do as she set Tonton down on the floor and pulled out a note pad and a pen. "Alright Kakashi, how did he handle himself? Shizune write everything down and put it under his file, this is the first mission report we are getting on him" ordered Tsunade as she pulled out the bottle and poured herself another cup, making sure that the window was closed securely.

Kakashi thought for a moment before sighing loudly. "Hokage-sama, this might not come as a surprise to you, but Naruto is a ninja of exceptional potential, even without the Kyuubi. I do not know whether it comes because he is an offspring of two very strong blood lines or because he is a genius of such caliber that Konoha has not witnessed before. I have to say that whatever he lacks in experience ha makes up with sheer skill and raw strength. In fact, I saw him use nin-jutsu, and fuuinjutsu that I have never seen before. If I was any less educated in the art of sealing, I might have thought it was something else entirely, because I have never seen sealing used in such a destructive manner before, I don't know if even Jiraiya-sama is capable of something like that," Kakashi's reply again put Tsunade to a turmoil as to where Naruto stood as far as his career as a Shinobi was concerned. At times he looked no different than a normal teenager, but at times his power was just too overwhelming to even think about. This was going to be a bigger hassle than she thought.

"What about team-work Kakashi? Is he a team player, or a solo power-house?" asked Tsunade, hoping that after hearing the answer to this question, she could give him an appropriate rank.

"Well, Hokage-sama it seems he understands the concept of team-work but does not follow it. He had already deduced how we could effectively use each member in taking down the Akatsuki members that we were to face during this mission, but he did not follow through with it. He lost control of his emotions when he realized that Gaara might not be alive and rushed ahead completely disregarding any strategy or plan. He lost his cool," commented the copy-nin. His assessment of Naruto was that he needed a little training in controlling his emotions, and learning how to work in a team, and he could become a very formidable foe to any enemy of Konoha.

"So do you think that he should advance to Jounin, or stay as a Tokubetsu for now?" asked Tsunade, not really knowing where to place him.

"I believe we should keep him where he is right now, I also suggest that he receive Black-ops training, his skill in espionage is already very high, and with proper training I believe he can become someone like me or even Itachi Uchiha," replied Kakashi in a thoughtful voice, yes Naruto was not a cooperative ninja, but with his potential it was not necessary that he has to be in a team. He can do a great deal alone; any ninja with high potential went through ANBU training before achieving the rank of Jounin. He himself did along with many of the other Jounins in Konoha right now.

"Hmm," said Tsunade as she placed her hand on her chin and thought about what the white-fang's legacy had just suggested. "Well, there is no way I am sending Naruto to Danzo for his training and Jiraiya is not here. Why don't you take over Naruto's black-pos training? After all you were trained by his father, it should not take you long to understand what his strengths are and how to improve on his weaknesses, right?" asked the Godaime Hokage, for now it was the perfect solution, plus he was a part of team seven now if anybody had the first call at teaching Naruto, it was Kakashi.

"Hokage-sama, can I reply to your question tomorrow? In all seriousness, I know very little about him, and if I am to train him, it will take me a little time to understand how he works, and if I am the right person for him." Kakashi replied to the Hokage in a serious tone.

"Okay, return tomorrow evening and we will discuss what to do with Naruto then. For now you are dismissed," said the Hokage as she poured herself another cup of sake.

With Naruto and Sakura (Two Days ago) 

As Naruto followed Sakura out of the Hokage's office, Shizune hurried past them to see why Tsunade had asked for her. "So Sakura, would you care to show me around town? I don't think I have yet been to the markets on the western side of town and I haven't even gotten a good look at the village itself!" Naruto exclaimed the last part out as he realized himself just how little of Konoha he had actually seen.

"Of course Naruto, by the way don't you want to eat dinner first?" asked Sakura, she was really hungry after the long trip back from Suna, and was quite tired of eating the dry food that they always got while on the road for a mission. Since the time she had seen Naruto with Temari, she had been thinking about her reaction to the whole thing. She had been unnaturally upset after finding out that Naruto and Temari shared a relationship that went well beyond friendship, if what she had seen was anything to go by. But when she questioned herself as to why she was so disturbed, she couldn't answer that question to herself. Finally, she came to the realization that it wasn't Naruto to blame if he liked Temari, after all they knew each other better than Naruto knew the kunoichis from Konoha. She had thrown her anger and awkwardness away and had been acting normal and friendly with Naruto again, hoping that her odd feelings would go away with time and they would hopefully become good friends and teammates. Sai wasn't exactly what most people would call normal, maybe Naruto could fulfill what team seven had been missing the whole time.

"That's a good idea Sakura!" chirped Naruto, now that he thought about it, he was quite hungry.

"Well then follow me, I know just the place where you might get a good but quick dinner," said Sakura as she skipped down the stairs and took to the rooftops, seeing if she could out speed the blonde ninja. It was a vain effort, Naruto it seemed caught up to her with ease and had no difficulty keeping with her. Well, he was a Jounin for a reason. They came to stop in front of a small ramen shop that read 'Ichiraku Ramen'. "We used to come here a lot you know, whenever Kakashi sensei decided to give us a treat, he would bring us here. I love this place, not because of the food, but because of the good times and memories that I have with this place," said Sakura with a far-away look on her face, remembering the times when she came here with Kakashi sensei, Sasuke-kun, and Sai.

"Well, I think it's perfect, after all Ramen is my favorite food," said Naruto striding in with a huge smile on his face. He immediately took a seat in one of the counter seats, and Sakura slid into the one next to his. Sakura spied that Shino Aburame was sitting at the far corner seat of the counter and beckoned him over. Not many people knew it but Sakura used to like Shino as a class mate back at the academy. He was one of the people who did not make fun of her forehead, and he was one of the few men who always showed proper respect to everyone. Seeing, as he had nothing much better to do in his current position, he slid into the seat on the other side of Naruto. His kikai bugs had said that the blonde was more powerful than all the rookie-nine, and he was intrigues as to what type of jutsus and skills this blonde boy possessed, that made him such a strong Shinobi. He didn't know if the Uzumaki had any Kekkei Genkai, but since they were not a clan, he was quite sure that this boy did not have one.

"Hello Naruto Uzumaki, Haruno-san. Good evening," greeted Shino, many would mistake his husky monotonous voice as boredom, but if they knew the Aburame, they all sounded like they were bored, like the Nara clan but while the Nara clan is actually bored, the Aburame clan had a tendency to hide all emotion behind an expressionless facade.

"Hey what's up, you are Shino from the Aburame clan right?" when Shino confirmed it by nodding slightly, Naruto continued. "What kind of bugs do you use, you guys have special breeds right?"

"You are absolutely right Uzumaki, we indeed have special breeds that can work based on our somatotypes and immune systems. The breed I use is known as the Kikaichu, specializing in data gathering and chakra draining. Useful in both combat and infiltration, due to this ability, I was one of the ninjas that made it out of the ANBU training with the highest scores, only seconded be Sai of team seven I believe," replied the Aburame, as Teuchi placed a steaming bowl of ramen in front of Shino. He swiftly pulled out a notebook from one of the pockets in his apron and pencil.

"Miss Haruno, it has been a while since you have come by, what can I get for you today?" he asked in a mild and friendly tone as they both smiled at each other.

"Why, Teuchi-san I will take the usual ramen with beans and chicken, no tomatoes please," said Sakura in a tone that said she had ordered the same dish lots of time before. Teuchi noted her order down quickly before turning to Naruto.

"And what would you like sir? Have we by chance met before, I think I have seen you somewhere," wondered Teuchi, trying to remember why the teen in front of him looked so familiar. Naruto looked up from the menu; he had been quickly scanning it while Teuchi was taking his Sakura's orders.

"I don't think we have met before Teuchi-san. I will take an extra-large bowl of miso-ramen, with extra beef please," said Naruto, he loved miso-ramen, even though Jiraiya constantly complained about how bad Ma Shima's cooking was. Naruto never had a problem with her cooking until he realized just how good humans were at cooking. He never complained though, it was really kind that Ma Shima always thought of him and tried to make food that were edible by humans. Teuchi nodded, noted down his ordered and hurried back inside the kitchen. "Wow, even though this place is small, it must be popular!" thought Naruto out loud, almost every table and chair was taken and there was a small line forming outside, as people were ready to wait outside for Ichiraku's ramen.

"Ya, you know three years ago there was nothing here but a stall that said Ichiraku Ramen. But people loved his ramen and soon his stall became extremely famous, Now look at it, it is a bustling restaurant!" said Sakura, she giggled at the expression Naruto had on; it was a mix between incredulous and unbelievable.

"It is hard to believe but I guess my master's words were not wrong, there is nothing that can't be achieved with hard work," said Naruto with a smile.

"Uzumaki-san, you have trained under Jiraiya-sama for your whole life, what are some of the things that you learned during your training?" Shino's blatant question made Naruto raise an eye-brow. Asking a ninja what jutsus he learned was like asking a magician to reveal the means behind his tricks.

"Well, Jiraiya-sama only taught me the basics of any form of jutsu, I was mostly trained by the sages of Mount Myoboku; the only things Jiraiya taught me are the tactical things, like strategies and coordination. He didn't teach me every jutsu I know or every kata I learned. Jutsu-wise he only taught me two jutsus," said Naruto as he looked at Shino, who had a big question mark for an expression.

"What were these two jutsus that you speak of?" asked Shino finally when he saw no answer forthcoming from his blonde, and now uncomfortable, colleague.

"Err, um, well one of them is called the Rasenshuriken, and the other is well everything I know about Fuuinjutsu, I learned from him," said Naruto, and Shino raised an eye brow quite comically. A very attractive young woman in an apron came and put a receipt in front of Shino, and smiled at Sakura before disappearing into the kitchen again. While Shino was pulling out his wallet, Naruto nudged Sakura's arm. "Who was that?" asked Naruto as she saw Sakura's questioning expression turn onto a smirking one.

"Why that was Ayame, Teuchi-san's only daughter and the village's heartthrob," said Sakura with a grin that reached from ear to ear. Shino put the appropriate amount of money down, before nodding to Naruto and leaving. A very red Naruto nodded back, he did not mean to ask because he thought she was cute, he just asked because…well she was really cute! "I think she is only a couple years older than us," continued Sakura, much to her delight at seeing her blonde-teammates uncomfortable situation. Ayame came in carrying both Naruto's and Sakura's orders, and placed it in front of them.

"Well Sakura, care to introduce your new friend to me?" asked Ayame with a sly grin on her face.

"Oh Ayame, I was just telling Naruto here about you," chirped Sakura as she picked up her chop-sticks. Sakura stood up and put her mouth near Ayame's left ear. "Don't bother trying to flirt with him, he is already booked," whispered Sakura. Ayame did the same and whispered back.

"Well duh, have you looked at him, he is like the most irresistible guy I have seen in my life!" she whispered back and they both started giggling silently. Naruto just stared at them, but waited patiently, it was considered rude to start eating before your companion, especially a female companion, if you have come to have a meal with her. Sakura sat back down, and then motioned towards the food so they could start eating. It didn't take Naruto more than a minute to finish his extra-large bowl before he ordered for another one. Sakura was quite surprised by the young-man's appetite. He had six extra large bowls of miso-ramen and he was still thinking about whether to have dessert or not! Now that she thought about it he was a really big man physically. He was well over six feet tall, and had a very heavy-set and muscular build, Ino really lacked common-sense, she actually challenged Naruto to a duel! What was she thinking?

"Sakura, I have noticed since coming to Konoha that you are quite popular, and one of the best combat-medics, what does that mean?" asked Naruto making Sakura blush a little at the compliment.

"Well a combat-medic is just what it sounds to be, a medic who can be put out on the field because he/she knows how to fight," replied Sakura, and Naruto's eyes grew wide.

"Wow that means you are twice as useful as any other ninja on the field that is very impressive, no wonder everyone seems to like you so much," said Naruto again, and this time Sakura was suspecting that he wanted to more than just compliment her.

"What are you exactly trying to ask Naruto?" she had caught him; he was trying to know more about her, specifically her love life.

"Oh, nothing nothing. I just wanna know more about my teammate; after all we are going to be working on missions and stuff together. I just want to know what kind of person you are," he replied too fast for her to believe he was being completely truthful.

"Well I am not exactly popular," said Sakura, making the quotation marks with her fingers when she said 'popular'. "But I have been here for a long time, and I practically grew up with the Rookie nine so we all know each other very well. If I have to say Ino is probably the most popular girl among us. Shinobis and civilians alike are dying to date her but look at her, she goes for the weirdest ninja in the whole rookie nine Sai," said the pink haired kunoichi in a voice that said she totally did not understand the blonde girl at all.

"And what about you, who are you dating?" asked Naruto, hoping that the answer would be no one. Sakura stiffened a little at that question, she had not dated any one in her life to be told the truth, and just when Sasuke was starting to warm up to her, the whole thing in the Chuunin exams happened, and then he fought his brother and got horribly injured, pushed him to get away from Konoha. She slowly lowered her chopsticks back to the bowl and looked down.

"No one," she said in a very meek voice.

"Really," said Naruto, it came out a lot more enthusiastic than he had intended it to be. It brought Sakura out of her musings, the way Naruto answered sounded like he was pleased with her answer. Deciding to find out what was truly his motive, she tried to test him a little.

"Naruto are you trying to ask me out? I can't believe you would actually do that with the whole thing going on between you and Temari!" she said in a very annoyed voice.

"WHAAAT? What are you talking about? There is nothing going on between me and…you saw her kissing me in the hospital haven't you?" asked Naruto in a lot quieter voice, as he realized why Sakura was acting all weird that day in the hospital. When Sakura nodded, he started to smile; it could mean that maybe, just maybe, she had taken a liking to him? When Sakura looked up she was surprised to see Naruto smiling.

"What's so funny?" she asked starting to get annoyed again.

"Well, the massive misunderstanding is just ridiculous! Yes it is true that I love Temari, but not like that, more like an older sister. I have hung out with Gaara a lot when we were younger and became almost like family. Temari was like an older sister to both of us trying to keep us out of trouble when we pulled pranks together on the Kazekage, she used to always give out false indications that led the trail to someone else, mostly Kankuro. Back then he used to be so clueless that we made jokes about what kind of Shinobi he would turn out to be. Here, I will let you in on a secret about her. From what I know about her, she is in head over heels for that Nara guy I fought," said Naruto in a hushed voice. Sakura nodded slowly, everybody in Konoha knew that Temari and Shikamaru was an item.

"So there is nothing going on between you and her." Sakura stated more than asked, to herself.

"Nope nothing at all!" confirmed Naruto back to his usual energetic self, and Sakura felt a sensation of relied spread through her oddly enough.

"So Sakura, since I had a really nice dinner, why not just have dessert to complete it, eh? What would you like to have?" he asked her as he indicated the dessert section in the menu with his index finger.

"Hmm, Ayame I think I will have the medium-sized strawberry and chocolate milkshake," said Sakura, and Ayame noted it down; she was ready to take their order.

"I want to try out the multi-flavored sundae, okay?" said Naruto, and Ayame nodded as she also noted his order down and disappeared behind the kitchen doors again.

"So Naruto, where do you want to go after dinner? I was thinking maybe the west side park," asked Sakura, Konoha was a big place with lots of attractions that they could go to.

"Nah, I was thinking about going on top of the Hokage Mountain, you know there is a full-moon today, I don't know why but I like watching the full-moon," said Naruto as he looked at the Hokage-mountain.

'Hmm, a guy who appreciates nature? That's a first for me,' thought Sakura, but hey everybody had their own tastes right, and it is really sweet that he wants to preserve the land he lives on.

"Sure Naruto, I wouldn't mind just relaxing for some time either, tomorrow is going to be a long day of training for both of us, and Tsunade-sama is worse than a slave driver!" said Sakura, and they both burst out laughing. Ayame came back with their dessert and placed it in front of them. "Enjoy! Your bill will be here shortly, do you want separate bills?" asked Ayame, she knew that Sakura always paid for her own food, no matter what guy she came to eat a meal with, unless of course it was her Father. Sakura was about to reply but Naruto beat her to the chase.

"Absolutely not, one bill only thank you," said Naruto in a firm voice, no argument will be tolerated. Ayame did not try to fight either; it was about time Sakura got an actual date.

"Hai," she replied and disappeared before Sakura had a chance to argue about it.

"Naruto you really don't have to," said Sakura.

"Of course I do, this is my treat to you for being such a good friend and teammate to me, you know I never really had friends growing up but being here with you makes me feel accepted, like I truly belong, so please don't stop me," said Naruto, this time his voice was much more serious and there was a little sadness in his features.

"Well I can totally accept that," said Sakura in a very cheerful voice, trying to dispel the somber mood that had come up suddenly at Naruto's revelation about his own life.

"Yup," said Naruto as he scooped a huge spoonful of ice-cream in his mouth. Sakura also smiled and started sipping on her strawberry-chocolate shake. As usual the dessert was just as good as the ramen, and both companions were content with the choice of their restaurant. Teuchi came carrying the bill and a couple of fortune-cookies, and handed one to each of them before placing the bill on the counter in front of them. Sakura's eyes grew bid at the amount written on it, as did Naruto's. She had always considered this place cheap, but then again she had never seen anyone eat six extra-large bowls in one sitting either.

"Wow, this place is way cheaper than I expected, wow really nice choice Sakura!" exclaimed Naruto happily much to Sakura's disbelief. "Usually I have to pay nearly twice that amount in a regular restaurant for the same quality and quantity of food, this place is great!" he exclaimed as he pulled out his wallet, which was oddly shaped like a toad and put the money down, with a generous tip. They started walking towards the Hokage monument, silently as Kakashi decided that it was about time that they got some privacy, enough watching his new blonde student for one day decided the silver-haired Jounin.

End of Flashback

Kakashi landed in front of the training ground, he had gotten used to having a silent training ground because he never got to train a team again, he usually trained either Sai or Sakura, whenever they got time off. Sakura mostly worked as a medic-nin and was supervising at the hospital, and Sai was well on his way to becoming an ANBU squad-leader, he has also been able to impress Danzo, the much hated leader of the Root division of the prestigious black-operational system. But today was a different story, he could hear the ruckus going on in the training grounds from almost three miles away, and when he got there, he almost wet his pants at the sight before him. There were more than two-hundred Narutos, divided into groups of twenty-five, and each group was doing a different activity.

One group was running laps around the large training fields, one group was walking up and down the trees, using only their feet or hands, one group was meditating, one group was fighting only using Tai-jutsu, one group was practicing with various types of weapons, one group was focusing completely on wind based jutsus, and another was focusing on water-based jutsus. "My god what stamina and this is an impressive amount of chakra pool to even pull off this many clones in the first place!" Kakashi thought as he started to move again towards the many Narutos doing oh so many things at the same time. As Naruto notice Kakashi walking towards them, he held up his hand and all the clones stopped doing what they were.

"All right I think that is enough warm up," muttered Naruto as a huge white cloud covered the training field. When the cloud dissipated, only one Naruto was standing facing Kakashi. "You are late again! I don't even wanna hear your lame excuse, why did you want to meet anyway?" asked Naruto in a little annoyed voice.

"Well, you tell me. I was just thinking that maybe I will get to know you, hang around with you, but judging by the way you have dressed, it shows that you intend to do some serious training," said Kakashi, studying Naruto's body posture. He was standing straight; his well defined arms were folded over his chest. His orange muscle shirt had the symbol of Konoha on the front. He wore dark camouflage pants that were tucked into ninja sandals, and his face wore an expression of defiance. 

"Of course I want to train, you can't have a day off if you are a ninja, and you of all people should know that. Jiraiya-sensei was the sensei of your genin group's teacher, I hope you know that!" exclaimed Naruto in a proud voice.  
>"Yes, I know that. Well if you are so intent on training, why don't you train with me? I have trained Sai and Sakura, and I have also trained Sasuke, before he left. They have all turned out to be strong ninjas. What do you say?" asked Kakashi in a hopeful voice. Naruto thought for a minute before nodding.<p>

"So what do you wanna do first?" he asked as he dropped his arms back to his sides, and his expression changed to an eager one.

"Well first I need to test you," replied Kakashi as he lifted his head band, his Sharingan was already spinning and stopped when it had three tomes.

Naruto groaned visibly, "Everyone is only testing me since the time I stepped foot into the village, why can't you just train me to make me better?" he complained in an irritated tone.

"Well, the Godaime Hokage-sama has told me to take over your training from here on, but if I don't know your weaknesses and strengths personally, how will I train you. This is a simple test, do as I say and you will be fine," assured Kakashi as he pulled out a few shurikens from his pouch. "First I will test your skills in weapons," without warning he threw his shurikens straight at Naruto. In the blink of an eye he had a kunai in his hand, and he blocked all the shurikens that would have hit him directly. "Good reflexes and keeps weapons within easy reach," Kakashi noted down mentally. "All right, now tai jutsu. Come at me with the intent to kill, let's see how good you are in hand to hand combat." Kakashi said, and Naruto put the kunai back in his pouch.

Both combatants ran towards each other at full speed. Naruto looked directly at Kakashi's hands and chest; he knew Might Gai's famous style of looking at the body and predicting the fighter's moves, and not at the fighter's face. He knew Kakashi would have the advantage because of the Sharingan, but he was going to give everything he had. The blonde ninja saw Kakashi's left hand move backwards, that meant he was going to use a roundhouse kick coming from the right, Naruto blocked the kick with both hands before pushing himself off, using the force as leverage to flip over the Jounin's head and land behind him. Wasting no time, Naruto ran at Kakashi using a complex sequence of kicks and punches while the silver haired Shinobi was still looking the other way. Without the Sharingan, Kakashi was able to predict the first two moves, but the type of tai-jutsu Naruto was using was unfamiliar and he got hit in three places before stumbling back to regain even footing with the blonde ninja.

"Humph, unusual katas this is going to be more bothersome than I thought," mumbled Kakashi as he took another stance. This time he saw Naruto taking the lotus-stance. Now this move Kakashi knew, it was Rock Lee's signature move, and it was one of the strongest tai-jutsu moves that Might had in his arsenal. Kakashi had taken extra-precaution to counter this move when he himself was training for his own Chuunin-exam. A small grin split his stoic face behind the mask, Naruto was in for a surprise. Again both ninjas ran at each other full speed, Naruto intended to use his own version of the lotus, which he had developed after he learned the standard form. Kakashi was expecting Naruto to lift him in the air, so he gave an intentional opening, but instead Naruto kicked him in such a way that he started to fly horizontally, parallel to the ground below them. Then Naruto appeared right behind him, wrapped his arms around Kakashi and started spinning. When they had reached the maximum speed, Naruto arched his body backwards, and Kakashi's head impacted the ground with tremendous force. Naruto let go and flipped out as Kakashi kept going for about a few more feet before coming to a stop. His head was buried into the ground and there was about seven-feet long furrowed ground that was formed because of Kakashi's head. His legs were sticking up facing the sky, and he wasn't moving at all.

"Oh crap, maybe I overdid it by using the lotus. Crap, I hope he isn't dead!" thought Naruto as he ran towards the Jounin's inanimate body, but before he reached it, the body poofed out. The blonde Shinobi stopped "It was a clone?" he asked to nobody in particular.

"Of course it was! Did you think I was going to fight you head on after realizing that you were using Katas that I had no idea about? The moment I saw you form that unusual kata before; I made a clone and switched myself out with it. Now I know that was a good move, if I hadn't either I would have a severely broken neck, or I would be dead," came the Jounin's voice from behind Naruto. He turned around to see Kakashi's eyes winked as he smiled behind his mask. "That was one heck of a move Naruto, a very nice touch, this way you are ensuring that your enemy is down for the count. I can't wait to show it to Gai; he will be stunned that I improved one of his best techniques!" Kakashi's face was like that of a kid's in a candy store that was giving out candy for free. "Okay next up is Gen-jutsu, how good are you at casting illusions?"

"Umm, well, I…I can't," he finally answered after hesitating for a few moments. "You see, when Jiraiya-sensei tried to teach me to make images using my mind, it just wouldn't work because the fox's chakra is too volatile and kept messing up my illusion because its chakra constantly mixing with mine. Jiraiya-sensei said that the next best thing is to know how to break out of any genjutsu. I can do that by either creating a clone, and if that's not an option then I straight out attack the opponent by sensing his or her chakra signature, no matter what sense they are trying to mess mine up with, chakra signatures can never lie," said Naruto looking at the ground, he always considered himself weak because his genjutsu in plain simple words 'SUCKED'.

"Ha ha ha, there is nothing to be ashamed of if you can't cast illusions; in fact a lot of Jounins in Konoha have very little Genjutsu training. We only have a handful genjutsu specialists in the village, and the best in Konoha is a Jounin by the name of Kurenai Yuuhi. So you are basically good at recognizing and countering illusions, that's fine too, let's see if you can break out of mine, here look into my eyes," commented Kakashi, but was a little surprised when Naruto was smiling.

"Come on, I know you have already cast one while I was talking and you are behind that tree instead of standing in front of me," said Naruto pointing at the tree a little to the left of the one directly in front of him.

"All right, you are good at recognizing them," said Kakashi as he stepped out from behind the tree and the one in front of Naruto melted away into the ground. "Now, let us see your nin jutsu. What are your affinities?"

"My first elemental affinity is wind, and the second one is water," replied Naruto; he had come to know of his elemental affinities from a very young age as he had completed the basic ninja training at the age of six. Jiraiya had given him a piece of paper and told him to channel a little bit of chakra into it, and the paper was cut into eight pieces. When Naruto turned ten, the Sannin repeated the process, and this time not only were they cut, they were wet as well. Since Naruto had learned of his secondary element, he started practicing and learning jutsus that involved elemental chakra, and since his chakra control was quite good, he had no difficulty in learning the difference between regular chakra, bijuu chakra, elemental chakra, and more recently, nature chakra.

"Hmm, two affinities already, have you tested your chakra recently to see if you have a third one?" asked Kakashi.

"No, but I can still pull off a few Katon jutsus, don't know why but I can, even though I have to work really hard to get them down," explained Naruto. He had never really wondered why, but a part of him always thought it was probably because the fox was sealed inside of him.

"Oh really, which ones?" asked Kakashi, now his interest was piqued, a third element to boot and that too at such a young age, unbelievable!

"I can do the Fireball technique, the Grand Fireball technique, the Fire Dragon technique, and the Fire Lava spit technique," Naruto rolled off the names of all the Katon techniques that he had learned over after trying harder than ever.

"Hmm, well none of them are below C-rank, I am impressed, what about your other elements? How many jutsus do you know?" asked Kakashi, if Fire was his weakest, Kakashi would definitely want to know his strongest.

"Oh Fuuton and Suiton I know too many to just list off, but I can tell you the strongest ones that I know. For wind I know the Rasenshuriken, The fierce wind gale, the typhoon, the wind fan cyclone, and the hundred sword storm. For water I know the Water ball prison, the Wall defense, the Mirage of Waves, the Water Dragon, and I also learned how to actually create mist using nothing but the water and air particles in the environment around me," finished Naruto only to see Kakashi with his jaws on the ground. All of those techniques were either A-rank or S-rank jutsus, and most of them were too chakra consuming to be effectively usable in a real battle. Yet, there were two techniques Naruto mentioned that he did not recognize.

"Naruto what is this Rasenshuriken, and mist how you can just make mist out of nothing?" asked Kakashi a little baffled at the blonde's revelation. He hadn't heard anybody being able to do that…other than the Nidaime Hokage, known legendarily for being the greatest water manipulator in the world.

"Oh the Rasenshuriken is basically mixing Wind chakra into the Rasengan to make it even mo—" Naruto was cut off when Kakashi literally screamed like a little girl.

"WHAT? Y-you were able to combine Nature chakra with the Rasengan? That's impossible, nobody has done that not even the Yondaime Hokage was able to do that!"

"Whoa man control it a bit there, I know, I am the only one who can use that jutsu because I haven't met many people who have wind based chakra other than me. When I showed it to Temari, she passed out of Chakra exhaustion from trying it, so I guess I am the only one capable of doing that jutsu without passing out," said Naruto with an uneasy smile on his face, this silver-haired man was becoming weirder every day. "As for the mist thing, when I asked Jiraiya-sensei how I could do that he just said that I was like the Nidaime Hokage, like he was able to create water out of thin air, I am able to create mist pretty cool huh?" Naruto said the last part more to himself than to Kakashi.

"Indeed, very impressive control over water manipulation," said Kakashi, as he regained a little of the composure that he had lost after seeing Naruto's extensive arsenal of strong jutsus. "So, is there anything you can do with this jutsu, or is it just a jutsu to hinder ninjas, like a regular mist?" asked Kakashi, he knew that Naruto wouldn't have named it among his strongest jutsus unless it has more uses than just confusing the enemy.

"Well of course, why do you think it is one of my strongest techniques? When a person is in this mist, I can physically attack him, to such a degree that I can decimate him in the atomic level," replied Naruto proudly, partially surprising and partially confusing Kakashi as to how that is possible.

"Care to elaborate?" asked Kakashi as a sweat drop appeared on his head when he noticed Naruto looking at him with a smile on his face indicating that Kakashi should have figured the rest out already.

"Oh, well you see, Jiraiya-sensei said that I can form a mist mainly because I have wind and water jutsu. So inside the mist, I get full control of the particles of the elements that I control, which is wind and water. As you already know, wind in used mainly for cutting and slicing, so when inside the mist, I can use the wind particles inside the mist to attack the person at the atomic level and there will be nothing left of him by the time I am done! When I first told this concept to Jiraiya-sensei, he sounded skeptical, but said that if I could pull it off, it could possibly be one of the strongest jutsu ever created, so I trained with Paa Fukasaku for nearly a whole year before I learned and mastered this jutsu, and surprisingly it takes very little chakra to actually manipulate the wind particles to do the attacking, the most chakra is consumed in maintaining the mist, which is not that much either, so all in all it is a very chakra efficient, yet a devastatingly strong jutsu." Naruto completed his assessment of the full capacity of his own jutsu while Kakashi tried quite hard not to faint. He did not know whether he should be glad that Naruto was on Konoha's side or whether to run away from this terror of a Shinobi as quickly as possible.

Finally coming to a decision that it would be prudent to not leave this potentially hazardous Shinobi without supervision, he then and there decided that he would take Naruto's training upon himself, mainly so that he would be the first one to know to run for his life, should Naruto turn against them. "Well Naruto, to wrap up our training, I want you to attack me with nin-jutsu, although I will make it clear that no jutsu that can be a one-hit kill, or an instant life ender is allowed, and please refrain from using your mist jutsu, just so that I know you will not vaporize me," said Kakashi with an eye-smile, as Naruto sweat-dropped.

"Whenever you are ready Kakashi-sensei," said Naruto in a bored voice.

"GO!" shouted Kakashi and Naruto was a little surprised when his hands blurred. Then his own hands blurred, but Kakashi had the head start of a couple seconds and that was all he needed. First of all, a huge water dragon rose and charges straight at Naruto, then Kakashi's doton jutsu turned the ground around his feet to mud restricting his movement, and the he noticed two Kakashis charging straight for him, both preparing to do the Grand fireball jutsu. Naruto's mind jumped to overdrive as he quickly thought about all the possible counters to the attacks that Kakashi was unleashing on him. So the water-dragon met in a head on collision with two condensed air bullets. Then the water that had taken the shape of the dragon flowed towards Naruto and formed a dome around him. _A dome!_ Kakashi stopped, a little confused, Naruto just attacked himself with the water ball prison jutsu? Then his Grand fireballs met in a thunderous clash, and slowly dissipated with a loud hiss as it met the water ball prison. When the smoke finally cleared, he saw a soaking Naruto standing there but he did not have even a light singe on his body.

"Naruto, if I am not mistaken, did you just attack yourself with the water ball prison jutsu?"

"'Course I did Kakashi-sensei, since you were attacking me with Katon from both sides, and I couldn't move, I figured that water was the beast way out, and the water ball prison was a technique that gave me a three-sixty degree coverage, so I used it, plus it is just a restraining jutsu, so while I couldn't attack you, I wasn't going to get hurt either. An even trade, don't you think?" replied Naruto obviously satisfied with the way he analyzed the situation and decided to get out of it with a unique solution that only he could think of.

"Brilliant, this kid is a genius!" thought Kakashi, a simple solution but something that no ninja would think of. What ninja would think of attacking himself with a restraining jutsu? No one Kakashi had ever met would even dream of something like that much less use it successfully in a battle situation! "Well don't think we are done yet," shouted Kakashi before he started rolling through jutsus again, as did Naruto. Their exchange in nin-jutsu went on for another hour and a half before it came to a conclusion when Kakashi's Rairiki rested an inch from Naruto's throat, who had his hands raised in a clear sign of surrender. "Well that concludes today's training I believe," chirped Kakashi as he withdrew his hand and the Chidori vanished.

"Training, that was no training, I didn't learn anything new, I didn't even get to see something that I haven't seen before," grumbled Naruto much to Kakashi's chagrin.

"Very true Naruto. Well I am going to report this to Hokage-sama; you have the rest of the evening to yourself. Enjoy!" with that the copy ninja took off towards the Hokage tower, and the blonde took off towards the western market district, no doubt to look for something to eat. Unnoticed by both, another masked ninja also took off, in a different direction than both other ones. The back of his uniform clearly read 'A.N.B.U. Division ROOT'.

**Okay all done! Yup this chapter was a long one, probably the longest one yet. Awesome! Anyway, I got some positive reviews from the previous one and I thank those that did. But I am still disappointed with the low number of reviews, please review more, I like feedback. Next is I want to thank the person who said it would be a good idea to add a mall recap of the previous chapter so that you don't have to go back and reread the last part to remember what's going on in the story. And lastly, I know that in the real manga Naruto's interaction with the other kunoichis have been very limited. What do you guys think, should there be more? Let me know, so that I can dedicate my next chapter in building Naruto's social standing with the other females of Konoha. And there is going to be some classic Danzo in the next chapter too. Until then Sayonara, and please review or shoot me a P.M.! **


	8. Revelations of the Past

Story until now (summary of last chapter)

Team seven returns triumphantly from a successful mission, and get some down time to relax. Naruto and Sakura use this time to get to know each other better, while Kakashi is assigned with the task of keeping tabs on Naruto so that he does not end up in prison, or falls trap to some conspiring Council member, who would like to know the full truth about the mysterious apprentice of Jiraiya. In the mean time Naruto is also able to show Kakashi some of his strongest jutsus, and Kakashi takes it upon himself to train the jinchuuriki in the arts of deception and espionage (black ops training). It seems like Danzo has taken on active interest in the unknown Uzumaki as well.

**Revelations of the Past:**

It has already been three weeks since Team seven had returned from a successful mission from Suna bearing the news that Suna had requested a Shinobi alliance with Konoha. The Fire Daimyo had immediately left for the hidden village in the sand to sign papers of the alliance and set the terms for their newly forged bond. The news of Team seven's successful mission and the consequent request of an alliance spread like wild fire throughout the village of Konoha. Many council members, shinobis, and villagers alike had praised Team seven's most established members endlessly. Expectations from the copy-ninja Kakashi was never low as he was the renowned student of the Yondaime Hokage himself. Sakura, the Godaime Hokage's apprentice, also known as one of the best combat-medics in Konoha and the teammate of the ANBU squad captain Sai. Many did not know who the blonde haired teen was that had joined them, but by his appearance he could easily be classified as a skilled Shinobi.

Among the Shinobis who did know that Naruto was the apprentice of Jiraiya, they also knew that the mission would not have succeeded without the crucial role he had played in taking down Sasori as well as Deidara. His strength as a Shinobi did not come as a surprise to many seeing his master was the strongest ninja Konoha had, but his familiarity with battle and his performance in the field did, as his age was far less compared to the level of expertise and experience he had shown. Not just the Jounins, but all the Chuunins had heard about the extra-ordinary young apprentice of Jiraiya, and many were talking. Among the villagers though Naruto was very popular because the young females considered him to be one of the most handsome ninjas they had ever seen, and the ones who had seen him could not argue the rumor, as he was the topic of interest among the Kunoichis sitting in Konoha's most popular Dango shop.

"No I am serious Anko; you should have read Kakashi's report of the mission, if there was not any unnecessary exaggeration in it then this Naruto really seems to be one of the strongest Shinobis in Konoha!" exclaimed Kurenai, much to her own disbelief as her friend snorted derisively in contempt.

"Yeah right Kurenai. You know what type of Shinobi that Hatake is; I will not be surprised if his mission report was false! He would have done it just to make Jiraiya-sama's boy look nice, and stay in the good graces of the Sannin, or his free supply of Icha-Icha might end," said the purple haired Kunoichi with a sly smile across her face.

"I wouldn't be so sure Kurenai-sensei, Anko-san. He appeared to be quite strong when I met him at the gathering on the night when we received the news of Kazekage-sama getting kidnapped." Hinata quipped in a shy voice, as if afraid of countering the thought that the adults had expressed for Naruto.

"Did he now? How do you justify that point Hinata?" demanded the purple haired Jounin, now beginning to get pissed off at the incessant argument that this Naruto truly was a strong as Kakashi had reported. No ninja his age could be as strong as a well experience Jounin. Even the Sannin trio rose to power after the Second Ninja World War, when they were all well in their twenties and had more than a hundred S-ranked missions under the belt. This newbie had popped out of nowhere and was being praised by her peers to be as strong as the Sannins themselves, albeit the fact that he was the student of Jiraiya.

"Umm, well he was faster than all the ninjas in our class, and he said that he had done many S-ranked missions under Jiraiya-sama's orders. As you know, among our class the only ones that went to S-ranked missions were Neji-san, Lee-san, Shikamaru-san, and Shino-san and that too only three or four at most, not many. The other fact is that he not only beat Ino in a straight out fight, he also beat Shikamaru-san in less than five minutes, a feat few of us have managed in the last two years, after he started training extensively with Shukaku-sama in the Nara bloodline jutsus," said Hinata, very fast and very red, afraid that Anko might lash out at her any moment because her anger was famous, not only throughout Konoha, but through all the elemental nations.

"You know what; I think all of you have definitely over estimated this gaki. I will ask the pervert Kakashi tomorrow straight up and see just how much he exaggerated about Naruto in that mission report of his. I bet he that the Gaki is probably on the same level as Shino or Neji at most," huffed Anko, there was no one in this village that was sane any more, thinking that a fifteen year old to be as strong as Jiraiya himself. After all Neji, Shikamaru, and Shino were called geniuses and prodigies for a reason, and Kakashi, Itachi Uchiha, and the Yondaime Hokage were known as the best in their respective generations!

"Anko, why is it that you are so against the idea that Jiraiya's apprentice is so strong? Are you not happy that is he is that strong, Konoha is lucky to have him in our ranks, with him, we might actually have the power of all three Sannins again," reasoned Kurenai, if thought practically then this news was the best Konoha had in a long time. Anko didn't reply, she just harrumphed and made a very rude face at her, making it clear that she did not believe it until she would see it first-hand.

"By the way where are the two wayward students of yours? I am getting hungry and those two brats haven't shown up yet, I am seriously thinking about ordering and making them pay for our food if they show up five minutes later!" said Anko earning a glare from both Hinata and Kurenai.

"Anko, this dinner is a tradition among me and my students, there is no way I am going to allow you to ruin it just because you are hungry and irritated that my hard-working students are late! I heard that they have just returned from a scouting mission and are probably turning in the mission report," retorted Kurenai in a rather cross manner, making Anko remember just how attached she was to her students, and what shape she was going to end up in if she did not stop insulting them that instant.

"Nice one Kurenai-sensei, at least someone appreciates the hard work that we have been doing these last couple of weeks! Hokage-sama sure was in a bad mood and she practically threw us out of the tower when we went in to turn in the mission report. And when I asked why she was so upset, mind you I did ask very politely, she said it was none of my bone-sniffing business! Can you believe it?" Kiba complained as he came over and sat down beside Hinata.

"Yes, our most esteemed Godaime Hokage seemed to be in a rather dark mood today when we went to turn in the mission report," added Shino confirming Kiba's claims, though his face was as stoic as ever.

"Well I am glad that you two made it, and just in time too as I was explaining to my friend Anko just how hard my students had been working," said Kurenai with pride in her voice as she gave a meaningful glance at Anko, who rolled her eyes at Kurenai's open admiration of her students.

"It's not just us Kurenai-sensei; everyone in the village is working hard. I have seen how Choji trains for hours with his clansmen. Don't even talk about Lee, he is like addicted to training. Neji and Tenten also seemed to have taken up his traits as they too have been training over-time with Gai-sensei. Sakura and Hinata here work hours in the hospital, and they also train with their senseis. Ino has been doing hours in the hospital and then training with Inoichi-san to learn the advanced stages of the mind transfer techniques. Even that lazy Shikamaru has been training with his dad every-day. And we were just coming 'round the training ground where Naruto seemed to have just about destroyed it for good," said Kiba, surprising everyone with his admiration of the other teens and his lack of the usual pride that he always had on his face. It seemed the Inuzuka heir was finally turning over a new leaf in his life and for the good this time.

"Hey what do you guys know about the new kid Naruto? How strong do you think he is?" asked Anko, hoping to glean some information that will aid her on her side of the argument with Kurenai.

"I have given my utmost tries at investigating Uzumaki Naruto but have been able to find very little information on him, and when I tried to question him about his skills he skillfully evaded my questions by not just un-answering them but he also gave me the names of jutsus that I have never heard of before," replied Shino. "As for his strength, he seems to be the strongest among the shinobis our age, even stronger than the Hyuuga prodigy Neji."

"And how can you say that, it is not like you have seen them in a spar or something have you?" asked Anko in a very annoyed voice.

"No, but I did bug him ("literally" whispered Kiba to the others) after I first met him and I have all the details of his fight with the Akatsuki. Since he did discover that I bugged him I have also realized that he quite proficient at reading chakra signatures and could be classified as an excellent tracker. As for his fight with the Akatsuki members, I have not seen anybody move as fast as him, not even Rock Lee without the weights on him. And he has some jutsus that are even stronger than Kakashi Hatake's famous invention Rairiki. Oh and he is also good at Fuuinjutsu, but that is to be expected as his mentor is Jiraiya of the Sannin himself," Shino's finished, and he took off his hood before taking a seat next to Kiba. Kurenai had the biggest 'I told you so' expression on her face and Anko grudgingly gave up.

"Fine, fine believe what you want but don't be surprised when it turns out that you guys were living in a false impression," said Anko, as she had her hands in the air in a sign of exasperation.

"Hey look who is here?" barked Kiba as he saw Team Ten enter the Dango restaurant along with their sensei Asuma Sarutobi.

"Hey guys how are you doing?" asked Choji in a cheerful tone. He had not expected to see so many familiar faces at dinner.

"We are all fine, how you are doing Choji?" asked Kurenai in a warm voice. Out of all the students Asuma had, she liked Choji more than the other two; he was probably the most innocent and naïve ninja in the whole world.

"I am fine Kurenai-san. So what were you guys doing?" he asked as he slid in beside Shikamaru, who looked like he could fall asleep any minute now.

"You mean besides waiting for you? We were talking about the new hot-shot in town." Said Anko in a bored voice before she gave a manic grin to Choji even though she knew it scared him.

"Stop it Anko," Kurenai slapped Anko lightly on her arm before continuing. "So what were you guys doing today?"

"Asuma-sensei was training us the whole day," groaned Ino. "And he gave us a few new techniques that are so hard that even after trying for hours I haven't been able to do it. Who is this hotshot you are talking about?"

"The one who kicked your sweet ass the other day," said Kiba loudly before breaking down in raucous laughter.

"Shut it Kiba before I make you!" snarled Ino.

"Oh yeah, I would like to see you—" Kiba was interrupted when Shikamaru's bored voice cut in.

"Talk of the devil," everyone looked towards Shikamaru before turning their heads to look in the direction he was. Naruto was entering the shop while taking his head band off. He looked around for a little bit and then his eyes settled on a group of familiar people. There were two older Kunoichis that he hadn't met yet, but the rest he remembered from the party and he clearly recalled the Nara and the Yamanaka from their previous spars. Ino waved at him and beckoned him to come over and join them.

"Naruto, how is it going?" asked Asuma with more familiarity than any of them had with Naruto. Ino gave her sensei a questioning look and he answered. "Well, Kakashi asked me to show Naruto some Fuuton techniques and I gave him a couple of them to practice. How are they going?"

"Got them down already, Kakashi sensei told me to thank you for the help," said Naruto as he sat down beside Kiba. "I don't think I have met you before he said looking at Anko and then at Kurenai.

"Oh, I am Kurenai Yuuhi Team Eight's Jounin instructor, and this is Anko Mitarashi, Konoha's number one interrogator," said Kurenai pointing at Anko who raised her hand lamely and said 'hi'.

"Oh, I read about you, you are Konoha's best Genjutsu user, and also known as the Ice princess, don't know why though," said Naruto excitedly. Kurenai's face turned pink at the mention of her old nickname that others had given her before she started dating Asuma because she rejected every guy that tried to ask her out before him.

"By the way Naruto what have you been doing today?" asked Ino, what she really wanted to know was whether he had made a move on any ladies since he had been in Konoha.

"Training," said Naruto and every one sweat dropped. It was pretty obvious that he had been training, his bare muscular arms were bruised, and his t-shirt was torn in more a few places. His palms were littered with small scratches and his left elbow had a bad cut.

"You know, Hinata can fix that for you in a few seconds if you want?" said Ino pointing at his elbow. Naruto also bend over and looked at his elbow.

"Oh, I didn't even notice that, but it's fine," said Naruto waving it off.

"That's fine Naruto-san, I am training with Tsunade-sama too," said Hinata and she bent over the table and placed her palms on his elbow, a green light surrounded her hands and when she removed it there was smooth skin, his cut was gone.

"Wow, that's awesome thanks!" said Naruto delightedly as he bent his elbow every way, making sure that the cut was gone.

"So Naruto have you been to this Dango shop before?" asked Choji, he was trying to get the others to order but everybody kept asking him questions and he was hungry.

"Yeah, once with Sakura, she said this was the best Dango shop in Konoha and since today I won't be having dinner with her I just figured Dango would make a quick and easy dinner," said Naruto as he flipped the menu open.

"You have been having dinner with Sakura every day?" exclaimed Ino; she had never heard Sakura do that with anyone before.

"Yeah mostly, I mean I have dinner with her and Kakashi mostly, sometimes Sai joins us too, but usually it's me, her and Kakashi, why do you sound so surprised at that?" asked Naruto not looking up from the menu.

"You know why because Sakura is afraid of dating anybody," said Kiba, before feeling a kick on his left shin from Ino. "YOW! What you do that for?" he growled, pulling his leg up to see his shin rapidly turning blue.

"Seriously Kiba, man up and get over it," came Shikamaru's voice where he had laid his head against the table. Everybody had thought that he had fallen asleep, but apparently not.

"She doesn't date anybody?" asked Naruto in a dejected voice. The more he learned about Sakura, the more he realized that his chance with her was as good as a beggar trying to marry a princess.

"It's not like that. When we were around twelve Sakura had a huge crush on a guy, well actually the whole class had a crush on him. But Sakura got in the same genin team with him, and she really started to love him, but he broke her heart and deserted the village, just after the Sand/Sound invasion attempt on Konoha. After that Sakura had been really hoping that he would return because she believes that he had a good reason to desert Konoha and still now she hopes and that is why she had never had a real guy in her life because she never gave anybody else a chance," the way Ino said he whole speech showed that she really cared about Sakura even though she showed that she did not really like her, inside she loved her more like a sister than a friend and knew that Sakura also felt the same way that she did.

"See, don't you think that it is stupid to pine and whine over one guy when there are so many others that can and will love you," said Kiba, even he knew that Sakura's feelings for Sasuke was no joke, it was serious and it was very deep.

"Hey why are we talking about that traitor anyway, I am hungry and want some Dango!" shouted Anko, she had been sitting here for more than an hour now and her patience was running thin. She was here for Dango after all. Asuma called a waiter over and everyone gave their orders to him, and he scurried away saying that it will take a few minutes to get that big of an order, but they will be as quick as they can.

"So who is this guy that you guys are talking so much about?" asked Naruto, he had a pretty good idea about who it was but he still needed to know for sure.

"Everyone's favorite Sasuke Uchiha," said Kiba, and the reaction from Naruto was immediate.

"Like Orochimaru's vessel Uchiha?" he almost growled, he had a past with the guy that had not only deserted the village he always dreamed of but had also broken the heart of the girl that he really liked. Man this guy has a way of getting on my nerves even without realizing he is doing so.

"How did you know?" asked Choji, a question that was spinning on everybody's head.

"I met him during my travel with Jiraiya-sensei a little more a year ago. It was the second time I faced that teme Orochimaru, and this time he had his protégé with him. He said that since they had fought countless times before, they should have us fight to see who the better teacher was," said Naruto. His expression showed that he had not enjoyed that particular incident at all, but everyone's curiosity got the better of them.

"What happened?" whispered Ino; she was still interested in knowing how her old crush turned enemy was doing.

"We fought, and he had the Sharingan, but I or Jiraiya-sensei did not know that he was the last surviving Uchiha and I fell for his genjutsu. It was a close fight, and I was almost beaten, before I realized what was going on and started fighting without my eyes. Finally I was able to turn the tables but then Kabuto jumped in and I was not strong enough to take both of them on at the same time," said Naruto, distastefully remembering his first defeat at the hands of someone who was his age and was able to beat him, making him realize just how negatively hubris can affect a person's capabilities.

"You fought Sasuke, and nearly beat him! That is unbelievable, he was very strong when he left the village and you fought him nigh a year after that, and you were able to fight him on even legs. That is incredible, no that is just outright genius!" shouted Asuma, while all the others sitting in the same table nodded (with the exception of Anko).

"It is true; he was a Chuunin level Shinobi when he left that village, and was probably a low Jounin level when you fought him, and you would have had him if he did not have the Sharingan, that is a feat that few people your age can accomplish," said Kurenai, making Naruto blush a little at the praise.

"Yeah well he beat me so that means there are shinobis my age that are stronger than me and that means no matter what I have to train to get stronger so that I can protect the people who are important to me," said Naruto, as bluntly as possible, making every one realize that his character was not one to be suspicious of.

"A noble goal indeed Uzumaki Naruto, but one that cannot be achieved by people with experience such as ours. To accomplish that we will need years of practice, skill, and experience in the field, something only few and extremely well established ninjas are able to get," said Shino, his hood and sunglasses were still on and it unnerved Naruto a little bit, but he refrained from motioning it to the Aburame, Sakura had told him that if people commented on his unique fashion of clothing, he got very irritated and upset.

"Okay, enough talk about the past. How about we get some good tasting Dangos in our bellies?" said Asuma, as the waiter came carrying two big trays with lots of platters filled with a variety of Dango dishes.

"Mmhm, finally I can have some food," yelled Anko before stuffing her mouth with four Dangos at once. All the people except for one were not surprised at the barbaric intensity with which Anko devoured her Dango.

"So Naruto how is your training going with Kakashi?" asked Asuma, he was the second one to be done with his meal, only beaten by his student Shikamaru, and was pulling out an almost empty pack of cigarettes to get his after-dinner drag.

"Asuma Sarutobi, you will put those cigarettes away this instant!" said Kurenai, with such a stern voice that Naruto was sure that even Tsunade would have put her sake away for a long time. Asuma just sighed but complied, he was not about to have another night where Kurenai was going to 'discipline' him.

"It is going worse than I thought. Kakashi-sensei is good at hiding, and even better at tracking. No matter how creative I get, he always finds me, but I cannot find him even if I try my hardest. I have gotten better at silent movement, and my stealth was good enough already, but my tracking skills need more work, and Kakashi-sensei says that my clothing stands out too much so I have to buy ones that are darker colors. I don't have many dark colored clothes because Jiraiya-sensei always told me how people are always attracted towards light and colorful things, I guess ninjas have to be as inconspicuous as possible," said Naruto, earning nods from all the older ninjas at the table.

"Yeah well that's to be expected, especially if you are learning from Kakashi after all," said Asuma, and Kurenai and Anko's opinions concurred fully with his statement.

"Why do you say that Asuma-sensei?" asked Choji, intrigued because he had no idea of the Hatake's past before Team Seven.

"Well that is because he was an excellent ANBU squad leader, the best in fact during his time in service. Ranked just below the ratings of Itachi Uchiha, who is said to be the best squad leader the ANBU ever had," replied Shikamaru, again surprising everyone because they thought he had fallen asleep after finishing his meal.

"Itachi Uchiha, one of the most interesting people from Konoha's past," muttered Naruto, instantly earning every-one's complete attention.

"What do you mean by that?" asked Ino, she had the least knowledge in the table about the elder of the last Uchiha, except for the most obvious fact that he killed the rest of his clan and Sasuke harbored a grudge the size of Hokage Mountain against him.

"I say that because his history, as far as I know it, sounds very ironic, and the consciences in his life feel very… convenient is the best word I suppose," said Naruto after thinking over the last part for a bit.

"I would like to hear the elaborated version Uzumaki Naruto," said Shino, as he leaned forward on the table, his fingers crossed in front of his nose, covering the lower half of his face in shadows making him look even more mysterious than usual. Every one nodded, this particular man was not discussed in Konoha often and the mysteries surrounding him ranged from weird to psychopathically insane. Naruto could have information on this regarding the fact that he was the apprentice of Jiraiya who was a very popular political figure during the time when the massacre happened. He probably had details about this regarding the fact that he might have had a major say about the decision that the council had made right after the massacre had occurred.

"Okay, well first off, he was supposedly the only one who had killed his own clan. Seriously, one guy with a Kekkei-Genkai killed off a clan who had the same blood-line limit as his? One in a million chance of that happening yet still believable. Second, even though Konoha went into a level one alert and lockdown, he was able to escape, I mean the ANBU had the Uchiha compound swarmed and they couldn't even track him? Third, right after he left Konoha, within two months he was sighted as a full member of the Akatsuki. In two months, he became one of the top operatives of a criminal gang that is lucrative enough to escape the grasp of all the elemental nations gave a top priority position to a ninja who they didn't know of two months before. All this facts lead me to believe that there was a bigger mind running the plot. The coincident and the chances of this happening is next to negligible, and yet it did leading me to believe that Itachi Uchiha is not the simple traitor to the village that we most people seem to think of him to be." Naruto stopped, and looked around the table to see all of them staring at him like he had grown a second head, well all of them except Anko who had a mischievous smirk on silent.

"And who do you think might be behind this grand scheme?" asked Anko, lowering her vocals to sound mysterious and cryptic.

"During the Uchiha massacre, the Sandaime was the Hokage, so he would have all the answers, but the second strongest man during his reign was Danzo, he still is one of the most powerful citizens of Konoha. So I am suspicious that Danzo knows the whole story behind the massacre, or as much as anyone alive knows, other than Itachi himself of course," said Naruto, looking at Anko with as much intensity behind his gaze as he could muster. Anko held his gaze with just as much intensity, and none of them blinked as they kept staring at each other. After what felt like a really long time, Kurenai hit Anko in the shoulder breaking their intense eyeballing of each other.

"A very good theory Naruto, but it is just that, a theory and since there is no proof, we really cannot do anything other than wait for this mystery to unravel itself," said Asuma as the waiter came back carrying the bill for the night. Anko was about to pick it up but Kurenai slapped it away going for the bill herself. Asuma proved to be the fastest as his hand snaked down below her snatching the bill away from both the kunoichis with a triumphant smile, which soon wilted when he saw the amount written on it. Quickly and effectively he covered his surprise and paid the necessary amount, before giving it back to the waiter.

"Well Kurenai sensei, we will see you next week then," said Kiba, and when Kurenai raised eye brow Shino filled her in.

"We have another mission tomorrow and this time Hinata has to come with us as well, it's for team eight," Shino's sufficed and Hinata rushed off, saying she had to pack her things. Kurenai followed, she is going to help and she needed to talk with Haishi Hyuuga about something as well.

"You three better not be late tomorrow, I am going to make sure you get those jutsus down before you guys are done with tomorrow's training, I can promise you that!" said Asuma in a stern voice and all three of his students groaned in unison, they knew they were going to have another tough day ahead of them.

"Well Asuma-sensei, since you have made up your mind about being troublesome tomorrow, I am going to head home to have a long nice sleep full night," muttered Shikamaru and took to the rooftops, followed closely by Choji.

"I will see ya'll later, I have one more prisoner to interrogate before heading home, Ibiki's express orders, have to be done before tomorrow morning," said Anko, and she too took to the rooftops, but headed in a completely different direction. Ino was also turning towards her home and Naruto was about to head towards the Hokage tower, where he had taken up temporary residence until they found an apartment for him, when Asuma stopped them. "Hey you two, wait up, I have something to ask, and I am guessing it won't hurt to have a guy's opinion either."

Naruto and Ino both turned back around to see Asuma pulling out a small thin box wrapped in a delightfully eye-catching red velvet cloth. He slowly opened it, as if something very delicate was inside the Ino and Naruto huddled around to get a good look at the object inside. It was a gold necklace that was threaded with rubies and the pendant was huge emerald that was worked to look like a very stylized version of the letter 'K'. Naruto gasped, it was a very beautiful piece of jewelry, and it looked like it must have cost a fortune.

"Wow!" squealed Ino, jumping up and down lightly on her toes excitedly. "So is this what you are going to give her next month?" she asked, and Asuma nodded before noticing the clueless face of Naruto.

"Next month its Kurenai's birthday and I thought that if I gifted her something really nice before asking her out, she would appreciate it and see that I am really trying hard to make this work," said Asuma, in a strained voice that said that their relationship was facing difficulties recently, and realization dawned on Naruto's face.

"I am sure that she is going to love it, and the art is really beautiful," commented Naruto and Asuma nodded, agreeing with his opinion.

"Yes, good luck Asuma-sensei, I am sure she is going to love it!" squealed Ino again, but this time in a low and hushed voice as the street was empty and it was getting late.

"Thanks guys, I really hope she likes it too. Ino I will see you bright and early tomorrow morning and both of you have a good night," said Asuma before heading on towards his own house. Naruto was about to leave too when Ino stopped him by putting her hand lightly on his.

"Naruto we need to talk, can you walk me to my house please?" she asked, and Naruto nodded, there was nothing wrong with walking her to her home right?

"So what did you wanna talk about?" Naruto asked as he fell in step with Ino.

"I wanted to talk about Sakura…and you," she said hesitantly, looking at him closely, as if searching for something on his face.

"What about her?"

"About your feelings for her, it is plainly obvious to everyone that you like her. I am not sure if she is ready to take that step with you, or anyone yet," said Ino, making Naruto stop and turn towards her.

"What is it that I don't know about?" he asked his tone serious.

"I told you, she has major guy issues, why do you think that she has not dated anybody for the better part of the last three years of her life? She still thinks that Sasuke is going to come back, she still naively believes that he left because he couldn't live in the place where his family was murdered, and she still thinks that he loves her, just the way she loved him back then," Ino's voice was rising with each word, and she was shouting, and breathing very hard, when she stopped.

"So what are you saying that I just forget about her and find someone else? Just leave her to believe what she wants only to have a lonely future?" asked Naruto, now his voice had gone up too.

"No that's not what I meant!" snapped Ino. She stopped, took long breaths and calmed down before continuing. "Look, I can see that you already care for her, and that you really like her, but she doesn't. She is not even ready to move on from him, much less look at other guys. If you are going to make her move on from Sasuke, do it slowly. If you make a direct move on her, it would end badly for both of you, and I don't want to see her get hurt again, it was hard enough getting her out of depression once, this time it might have a much worse effect on her. As a Yamanaka I had first-hand experience of what her mind went through when Sasuke left her, and it was a devastating blow to her emotionally and psychologically. Sakura was on the brink of losing herself, either into a coma or madness. If it wasn't for my father she would probably be in one of those states right now. It was hard watching her back then I don't think I can see her lose it like that again. So please, I am begging you take it slow, and don't push her. Even after all these years, her emotional security about herself is almost non-existent," Ino stopped; she had told him everything that she knew Sakura, her oldest and best friend, had gone through, and what it had taken for her to pull it all together and get her life and career back on track.

Ino cannot, will not, have someone else do the same to her and see her fall back to where she came from again. It would be too much to handle and she knew that Sakura's psychological state was still delicate.

"Is that your house?" asked Naruto in a tight voice, as they rounded the corner and the flower shop came into view. Ino nodded, there was nothing left to say between them, and Ino had the feeling that somewhere along her thoughts for Sakura, she had hurt her new blonde friend. They came to a stop in front of her house, and she waited uncertainly to see if Naruto had anything left to say to her before they departed. When he remained silent, she turned and walked to her door and as she was about to enter Naruto stopped.

"Ino," he paused as she turned back towards him. "Thank you. I did not know you cared for her so much, now I know that she has a friend that she can count on no matter what happens." Ino nodded and a small smile touched her face.

"You are welcome, and Naruto please don't tell her I told you all this, then she will really think that I have gone soft," said Ino as she entered and closed the door. Naruto stood in the walkway with a dumbfounded expression before shaking his head.

"Ero-sannin was right, girls are weird," he muttered before moving towards the Hokage tower.

Danzo's Office

The brooding war-hawk sat in his office. For the last month, he had been contemplating on one and only subject that had started plaguing him in the form of Naruto Uzumaki. The problem, that had started as a trivial matter had turned into a massive political jumble. This boy posed a threat not even knowing the amount of power and sway he holds with the council, the clans and his own seat as the leader of the black-ops division. It did not help the fact that the boy was quite powerful in his own rights, and his mentor was not one that could be talked into spilling the secrets about him. Jiraiya was just as hard of a shell as this boy was proving to be. But then again, his father, the Yondaime Hokage, was also a hard headed, righteous, and stubborn man. During his reign, most of the black-ops divisions were closed down, and all root operations were disbanded, as they were based on unethical and unlawful means of eradicating threats that were dealt with even before they rose. "No matter what happens, I have to talk to the boy. He needs to know about his heritage, about his powers with the political side of his village. If he agrees to work with me, I just might get the key to solving all the problems that Tsunade brings up with the clans at her side.

There was a knock on the door and the door opened to reveal one of the Nins he had placed on Tsunade's own ANBU. It had aided him very much in preparing his arguments when he knew what kind of problems and questions the Godaime Hokage was going to ask him to show the council how his plans were flawed. But in all entireties, Danzo never went against Konoha; his means were a little…under-handed. He did not understand why that was such a big problem with the Hokages in general. "Any news?" he asked, there was going to be big council meeting with the Hokage in the next week, he wanted to know why she had called such a big meeting.

"Yes sir, but this does not involve the council meeting that will be held next week. This is about a report that was sent by on the frog summons of Jiraiya. It seems that he has located where Orochimaru is hidden right now, along with his prized pupil, the Uchiha," said the man.

"So Konoha's last Uchiha is showing his face to the world again," thought Danzo, before getting up and picking up one of the folders. He quickly flipped through the pages, and his eyes landed on the sight of Sai. Yes, a perfect opportunity to influence it but with a member they trust. "Good work bat, keep this up. Send in Sai on your way out," ordered Danzo as he sat back down behind his desk, returning to his brooding once more.

"Yes sir," the ANBU saluted smartly before leaving his room, closing the door behind him.

**Okay, done with another chapter. So what do you think happened between Naruto and Sasuke in the past to make him so angry at our favorite Uchiha? Next chapter we will find out a lot about the mysteries surrounding the new Naruto, and they are going to set out on their famous Sasuke retrieval mission. Now someone pointed out to me that why did Naruto not notice a Root ANBU spying on him while he was sparring with Kakashi. Well the most basic reason is he couldn't. I mean he was giving his all to beat one of the most powerful characters in Naruto-verse, of course he had to pay his full attention towards Kakashi, or he would have been filleted. Anyway, if you want to discuss the story in more detail, shoot me a P.M. and don't forget to review.**


	9. Departure

Story until now (summary of last chapter)

Team seven's renown had grown in Konoha as they had come back with the news of Suna's alliance proposal. Naruto had started training with Kakashi in arts of Black-ops, and his friendship with Sakura has taken a step farther in the right direction. As Naruto learns more about the last Uchiha of Konoha, and his betrayal to Konoha, it is also revealed that the Uzumaki had a mysterious rivalry with Sasuke. Later Naruto also comes to know of Sakura's feelings for Sasuke, and Ino's cautionary advice that Sakura was in a very fragile state of mind and could break if she goes through emotional trauma like she went through when Sasuke defected from the village, and she felt like he had betrayed her.

**Departure: **

Naruto was patiently waiting in the Hokage's office for his perverted sensei to show up. It had been a while since he had met his mentor, who also coincidentally has been his Grandfather figure as well as his friend throughout his entire life, and even though he wouldn't admit it openly, he had missed the pervert in the time he had spent in Konoha, practically alone. Tsunade, on the other hand, was not so patient at all. The pervert had said that he would be back in an hour and it was more than two hours since he had vanished after saying that he had information on Orochimaru and possibly his current location. It had piqued her interest, and now she couldn't wait to find out more about it, which only added to her impatience as she constantly tapped her right index finger against the hard-wood surface of her desk.

"So Baa-chan, why did you call me into your office? If Ero-sannin had any info on the snake wouldn't he want to discuss this stuff with you in private?" asked Naruto, not being able to take the constant tapping of Tsunade's inexhaustible index finger.

"Naruto, stop the act, I know all about your rivalry with Sasuke. Given the fact that you were able to fight him on even ground makes you one of the only people among your age that I would feel safe sending on a search mission. But whenever Sasuke is involved, my apprentice has a knack of jumping in no matter what the odds are. Sai, being an original member of Team seven wouldn't miss this mission either, therefore when I discuss this issue, I want to know your opinion on the whole thing," said Tsunade. She needed more information from Naruto anyway, and that was why the blonde was present.

"If Sasuke is there then Orochimaru is there, and if Orochimaru is there then Kabuto will be there. What makes you think that I and a bunch of Chuunins can just waltz in there, take all of them down and bring back the Uchiha single-handedly? Orochimaru, as you already know, is a Sannin! Kabuto and Sasuke are both high Jounin level Shinobis it is going to be a losing battle, even if there is one," Naruto shot back, he knew that Sai and Sakura were both capable ninjas but the trio that they would be facing was on a whole different level.

"I am not too worried because I am not sending just you and a bunch of Chuunins as you put it. I am going to send one of our most capable ANBU squad leaders, and he is a high Jounin level so calm down. What I want to know is can you handle Sasuke by yourself?" asked Tsunade, she knew that Naruto was beaten by Sasuke, but she also knew that was mainly because he was caught off guard by the Sharingan.

"I think I can take him, but there is Kabuto as well as Orochimaru to back him up, what about them?" asked Naruto, he knew that Kabuto and Orochimaru's combination was one that was flawless, efficient, and powerful. They had nearly taken out both Tsunade and Jiraiya in a straight out fight, albeit Tsunade was hindered because of her phobia of blood and Jiraiya was drugged. If he hadn't been there, they would have surely lost.

"You can leave Kabuto up to Sakura and Sai, together they can take him. I am not too worried about Orochimaru because he still cannot perform any ninjutsu or genjutsu so Yamato should be able to hold him off, maybe even capture him, the only real threat right now is Sasuke," said Tsunade, she gazed searchingly into Naruto's eyes, looking for answer. Naruto looked down, he knew that logically the plan seemed good, but with Orochimaru nothing was as it seemed.

"You should have a little more faith in yourself Naruto, we both know you have become much stronger than you were when you fought Sasuke," said a new voice, and Naruto had to smile. There sitting on the window sill in his classic crouched position was none other than the sage hermit Jiraiya.

"About time you got that perverted arse of yours back here!" shouted Tsunade as she stood up, sending her chair tumbling back, her face red with anger. Jiraiya humped down from the window sill and was frantically shaking his hands in front of him trying to calm her down. To Naruto, it appeared almost comical, one of the strongest ninjas in all the elemental nations shaking in fear from the anger of a woman, who was weaker than him as far as strength and combat prowess was concerned, but also the woman for whom he harbored a secret crush for more than three decades. Over the years Naruto had learned that even though the Sannins got their title together, Jiraiya has become far stronger than his old teammates. He never really showed it but if he wanted, he could take out Orochimaru in a straight out fight without any problem. When Naruto had asked him why he was holding back so much, he had said that it wouldn't be fair to his teammate to fight him when he was weak; he wanted to fight and defeat Orochimaru when the Snake-Sannin was at full strength.

"Hime calm down, I was only talking to Kakashi about Naruto's training and his improvement. You know how he always shows up late, he couldn't be on time to save his life!" said Jiraiya rapidly, he knew that if his explanation didn't come out fast enough, his life definitely would. Tsunade seemed to calm down, but she still had an angry expression on her face as she sat down behind her desk.

"So what did Kakashi-sensei say?" asked Naruto, he was always eager to know how much he had improved.

"Well he said that your black-ops training is going well, you are apparently a very quick learner and you are advancing much faster than anyone he has ever seen or trained," said Jiraiya, it wasn't much of a surprise to him. Everything he taught Naruto, the boy learned much faster than he ever thought possible. "But I have heard some things from Kakashi that I don't remember teaching you, what was that about extremely powerful Fuuinjutsu?"

"Hey that wasn't mine Paa Fukasaku gave it to me, said it was my Grandfather's personal collection of jutsus!" exclaimed Naruto, he knew it was a bad idea to learn things without telling Jiraiya, but Fukasaku had insisted that he learned jutsus that were his by inheritance.

"Hmm, was it a part of the Myoboku library?" asked Jiraiya with his finger tapping his chin.

"No, did I not tell you it was my grandfather's!"

"Where is it now?"

"I left it with Fukasaku, I only got about a quarter of the way through, there were a lot of new things in there to learn, and they were much harder than the Fuuinjutsu you have been teaching me," said Naruto with a bored expression.

"So Fukasaku had been helping you learn it?"

"Yeah, you were away most of the time remember?" said Naruto in an annoyed voice. He was getting irritated with the useless interrogation.

"So what's wrong with him learning new sealing techniques?" asked Tsunade, she never got the pair in front of her, they worried about things that were not worrisome, but took bad news like a cool breeze to the face.

"The big hulking seal on his stomach is what's wrong. Many sealing techniques are intertwined with others, and the seal that's keeping the fox at bay is one of the biggest one I have ever seen, so it is also connected to a large number of other sealing techniques and if the boy learns a techniques that undoes his seal on the stomach it will be catastrophic to say the least," rambled Jiraiya, even he, a Sannin of the leaf, was intimidated whenever he came face to face with the nine-tailed fox.

"I know, that is why I have been making sure of learning techniques that are not related to jinchuurikis at all," said Naruto, abating some of the worry off his sensei.

"Hmm that's smart, well I will have to get that book that way I can teach you some of the stuff too," muttered Jiraiya before he diverted his attention back to the Hokage.

"I remember you saying that he could control the fox's chakra, I have never seen him using it though?" asked Tsunade, she knew first-hand how strong jinchuurikis could get given her participation in the Shinobi wars.

"Yeah, Naruto is able to control about five tails worth of chakra, after that he loses his control over his emotions. We have been working on that but after he came here he couldn't just openly start using the Fox chakra, it would draw too much unwanted attention," said Jiraiya. "Naruto, why don't you use teleportation scroll to go to Myoboku and start practicing on your control?"

"I would but Kakashi-sensei has been driving me to the ground everyday with Black-ops training. I thought I was average at it, but he is a genius and he has been teaching me some of the advanced techniques at stealth and espionage, says they are really useful when taking out an enemy without anyone else realizing that he is gone," replied Naruto with awe in his voice in admiration to the one-eyed Jounin. Jiraiya shivered, who knew what kind of twisted methods that wily man had come up with, Minato had said that he was way more mature than kids his age was and that was over a decade ago. Now he had grown up to be notoriously famous around the elemental nations as the copy-ninja, a clever disguise to his true talents a prodigy among the ANBU and a master at stealth.

"Enough talk, you two can catch up later. Right now I want to know what Jiraiya have found out about Orochimaru!" declared Tsunade, eager and concerned at the same time.

"Fine fine, we will talk later Naruto. What do you want to know hime?" said Jiraiya with a sigh, there was no way to make Tsunade let go of something after she got a sniff.

"Where is he and where is his apprentice?"

"They are in an underground base at the border of Otogakure; I have a detailed map with the pinpoint location as well as the exact coordinates. My spies tell me that they will be stationed there for at least a month because Orochimaru had decided that he will be switching bodies but he won't be taking Sasuke's yet. So they are still going to be there for about three more weeks," Jiraiya nodded as he mentally ticked off all the main points that he had on the other Sannin and his apprentice.

"Are you saying that they have already moved into this base for almost a week now?" asked Tsunade, her expression showed that she had calculated something that Jiraiya had obviously missed. "Damn, then it might be possible that his body exchange might already have happened! There is no way I am sending ninjas in there if Orochimaru can fight at full strength," she shouted.

"Don't worry about that Baa-chan; it takes nearly a month for Orochimaru's body to function normally after he had the exchange done, if what Ero-sannin said was true then he will be a mummy in bandages for about three to four more weeks. The only things he will be able to do properly is walk and jump for now, nothing more than basic nin-jutsu and gen-jutsu, tai-jutsu is totally out of the question," explained Naruto, much to Tsunade's relief. They had a lot of research and data collected on this specific Sannin after all.

"So we can still proceed as planned?" she stated more than asked but the other two nodded anyway. "Good, Naruto you need to go and pack up. Meet us at the main gates in four hours from now and tell Shizune on your way out that I have asked for Sakura, Sai, and Tenzo to meet me immediately," she shouted, as Naruto was already on his way towards the door.

"'Kay Baa-chan!" came the faint reply as the door closed behind him.

"Shizune Nii-chan you got to tell Sakura, Sai, and someone named Tenzo to meet up with Baa-chan right now, she got a mission for them," said Naruto, he was already on his way out when Shizune called him back.

"Wait Naruto, what do you have to do until it is time to leave?" she asked as she shifted through another pile of papers looking for a document.

"Hmm, I was probably going to go for a quick lunch before going back to my place and pack up," he replied, a little confused as to why she would want to know what he was going to do with his free time.

"Does your quick lunch involve going to the hospital by any chance?" asked Shizune with a mischievous grin crossing her face. Almost everyone knew about Naruto's crush for a certain pink haired medic, ironically the only person who was oblivious to the whole affair was Sakura herself. The news had spread quite quickly curtsey of a certain Yamanaka Heiress. Naruto groaned loudly before swearing for the hundredth time that week that he would kill Ino when he met her next time.

"Not you too Shizune Nii-chan, it's embarrassing enough coming from the others, I thought you would understand!" exclaimed Naruto, he had thought that if someone would understand it would be his sister.

"I was just joking but it seems that you do have something for Sakura, good for her! If you are going to the hospital, why don't you give this to her, this will let her know that she has a mission waiting for her." Shizune said moving a folder towards him, which he snatched up, gave a weary glance towards Shizune before running out. Much to Shizune's amusement, he was heading directly towards the intensive care wing of the hospital.

"Sakura, what are you doing?" asked Naruto, as loudly as possible, jumping into her office through the window, giving her a mini-heart attack in the process.

"Naruto! How many times do I have to tell you stop sneaking up on me like that? You almost gave me a stroke!" she exclaimed, her hand on her chest. Naruto caught the pen that was falling off her hand and put it back on the table before giving her his trademark grin.

"Kakashi sensei did say it was good practice to see if you are able to sneak up on fellow ninjas, it seems I am getting good at moving without making a sound, don't you agree?" he asked with a mock thoughtful expression as he sat down across from her. "Are you free right now?"

"Yeah, once I am done with this I am free for an hour I think," she said as she picked her pen up and looked at the calendar to see if her assessment about her schedule was accurate, which it was.

"Good then we can have lunch?" he asked as he set the folder on her desk, and she eyed it before looking up at him with a questioning look. "I'll tell you over lunch, how long before you are done with that?" he asked pointing at the paper that she was filling out.

"About five minutes," she said, shifting her concentration back towards the document she was previously working on.

"So what is the real reason you have called me here?" asked Jiraiya, he knew that Tsunade would not have summoned him had it not been urgent.

"I think Danzo has figured out who Naruto is and is keeping an intense watch on him. Naruto has reported to me that he has ANBU following him all the time, even when he is training and with other Shinobis. I can't confront him on this matter either because he will bring up the security of this village and make me look bad. What can I do?" Tsunade had exhausted all the methods that she could think of but couldn't come up with one solid enough to shove all of Danzo's arguments.

"Don't you think that if he had really figured out who Naruto was he would have asked you to let him join his ROOT division first?" asked Jiraiya. He knew that Danzo would be the first one to try and get Naruto to join him had he figured out Naruto's true heritage and the amount of political power he would hold over the council as well as the village.

"What makes you think he hasn't asked me already?" chimed in Tsunade in a worried voice. Jiraiya's eyes widened, he hadn't thought Danzo would have been able to put it together so quickly, this is going to prove to be a bigger thorn to their side than he imagined.

"This is not good. Did you try to make up a story?" asked Jiraiya, his worry was increasing every minute.

"No, I just said the same story that Sarutobi-sensei said with a little more meat to make it sound more realistic. He being an Uzumaki does not make it any easier; there were only two or three Uzumaki males at the time in this village. What do you have in mind?" asked the Hokage.

"I don't know if anything else will work, let's just go with what Sarutobi-sensei said and try putting off Danzo for as long as possible. I have to talk to Naruto about Danzo's offer; maybe he can come up with something. Why did you assign Hatake for his training?" Jiraiya finally asked the question he had been dying to know the answer to.

"When we tested Naruto, the only thing he was lacking was black-ops training, and if I put him in ANBU, it will give the Danzo the perfect opportunity to make Naruto join his ROOT division with the council's help. Since Kakashi is the most accomplished ANBU operative outside of the ROOT division, I thought he would make the best mentor for Naruto, plus the fact that he was Minato's student only adds to the fact that Naruto will be I good hands. Is there something wrong?" Tsunade was getting angry, not only was Jiraiya avoiding the initial problem that she wanted for him to solve, he was diverting her attention to something as trivial as whom she chose to be a teacher for Naruto!

"Nothing, I just thought that you would be putting him under someone like Asuma's or Gai's regimen. I thought the team that Kakashi handles was disbanded when the Uchiha defected, so I was just wondering why him," said the Toad sage with a sigh, dropping the subject as he sensed that his colleague temper was reaching critical levels, which could pose immeasurable amount of physical pain and health hazard on his part. Tsunade frowned; it looked like Jiraiya was out of his game today.

"So what do we do with Danzo?" she asked again, in a softer tone, she was suddenly feeling really tired as well.

"Hey, have you ever thought if we can take him down?" asked Jiraiya, he had never thought of it before but the old war hawk had to be as old as their Genin-team sensei, if not older.

"What do you mean take him down?" asked Tsunade, not quite grasping the full meaning of the toad-sage's words.

"Do you think that we can defeat him in a straight out fight? I mean sure he probably has a lot more experience than us but his age has gotta be catching up with him, I mean the dude existed as a ninja before we were even born!" said Jiraiya with a glint in his eyes, after all they were the Sannin for a reason, the most established Shinobi in all of Leaf village and Fire Country.

"We probably could take him in a straight out fight but don't you think it would be over-doing it if he was accidentally killed in a sparring session against us?" asked Tsunade putting emphasis on the word 'accidentally', people would definitely question it if the leader of the ROOT Division just happens to die in a spar against the strongest ninjas in the village.

"Yeah, that would look suspicious. I really can't think of a way to make him back off other than proving somehow that Naruto is not Minato's son or by some means threatening that old croon to a point where he will agree to keep the secret until we deem otherwise. I don't think we can do either without alerting other people that something off the hook is going on in the village," responded Jiraiya, wracking his brains to come up with a solution that will be solid enough to convince Danzo, but can be carried out discreetly enough so that only a few people will know what is truly going on.

"Have you found out any new information from your spies?" asked Tsunade, abandoning the thought that Jiraiya will provide a solution to her Danzo problem.

"Yes, my spies say that two new Akatsuki members are out for hunting Hidan and Kakuzu are their names I believe. That duo is notorious because these two were key members when Akatsuki was first formed as they were the ones that took out most of the major obstacles that Akatsuki were facing. Without these two the Akatsuki organization would not have formed, so they are probably extremely strong and very cunning. I would watch out for these two, right now they are moving north towards the Wind country, but Fire is on their list because they want to know whether we truly have a jinchuuriki or not, it seems that their plans will not be fulfilled without the Kyuubi, and he was last seen in Konoha as you well know," said Jiraiya, his face becoming a little ashen at the thought of his beloved student's self sacrifice for the village.

"Do you think we should increase the patrols around the village in case they do decide to come in here just like the time Itachi and Kisame did, about three years ago?" Tsunade still remembered the intense operation she had personally monitored on Kakashi because of the intense trauma his brain had gone through under Itachi's Mangekyou.

"That would probably be a good idea, but even though these two are strong, undoubtedly, I don't think that they are as strong as Itachi or Kisame. Their Duo is the most infamous of them all. You can rest assure that the chances of them waltzing in here unannounced are at best really low, but if those two are spotted anywhere in Fire country, I suggest you send a strong team to deal with them immediately," Jiraiya's seriousness was already a sign that these two were bad business, Tsunade nodded and decided to bring up this issue in the meeting she had that evening with her military advisors.

"You realize that the 10th of October is coming up? Does Naruto know what that day signifies and that Konoha actually celebrates that day as the death of the Kyuubi right?" asked Tsunade, he did not want Naruto to be surprised about anything that involved the Kyuubi, it was a personal matter to the young Uzumaki after all.

"Yeah, he knows all about it, I told him about that when he turned thirteen and he took it quite well for someone as young as him. He did ask me that before he turns seventeen we should tell all the villagers that the Fox is not dead and that he has become the vessel for it," said Jiraiya, a day that he dreaded, a day that was coming up quite fast.

"Do you think we should? How will the villagers take it? I remember that was exactly the reason why sensei wanted to send him away from the village in the first place. I suppose I can do what he asks but it will not be in his best interest. Maybe we should delay the news, he is still new and he will need more time for people to start really seeing him for what he is and not as the fox," said Tsunade rapidly, the lines of worry evident on her face. Jiraiya understood her situation more than most would. Naruto was the first person that she placed her trust in, after decades, she had finally accepted someone as family in hopes that maybe her new family would not give up on her like Nawaki and Dan. Naruto was the only person she had opened herself up to and he had proved to be everything she had expected, it would completely break her if she lost him as well. As for Jiraiya himself, well the boy has taken a part in his heart that nobody had before. He had considered Minato a son and vice-versa due to the fact that the Yondaime had lost his father at a young age. Naruto, who considered Jiraiya like a grand-father, knew that the Toad Sage loved him like he was the hermit's own grandson. For now the only people that Naruto considered family was Jiraiya, Tsunade, and Shizune, and none of them wanted to lose the youngest member of their family because of the arrogance and the stupidity of the villagers and the council.

"Maybe, but this was one of the things that he was most insistent about, I don't think you can stop him even if you tried your best, once he has set his mind to something, you know what happens," said Jiraiya, in a voice that said he had given up trying to go against the blonde jinchuuriki, as he had met failures more times than he cared to count.

"I know, he might resemble his father in looks every possible way, but his personality is a twin to his mother's," Tsunade sighed before taking a deep breath. "Well I have to finish this paperwork, so unless you have some more life threatening issues to discuss, you may leave or I will have to stay awake the rest of the night because Shizune has threatened me that I won't be getting a break until I finish this pile." Jiraiya knew when he needed to be out of his old teammate's path all too well. So he placed the map of Otogakure on Tsunade's desk and pointed out the things that she needed to know.

"Well hime, I hope you enjoy doing that paperwork," said Jiraiya, and jumped out the window before Tsunade threw something at him. As he made his way towards the bar, he saw his student jumping out of one of the windows from the west wing of the hospital. He quickly made his way towards his apprentice; he needed to talk to Naruto before he took off for his mission. "Hey Naruto wait up!" he called as he jumped to the roof top on which Naruto was standing.

"Ah, Ero-sannin what's up?" he asked as Jiraiya landed next to him.

"We need to talk, this is classified," he muttered so Naruto understood the importance of privacy on the matter. He nodded and signaled Jiraiya to follow as he took off towards the place where he was staying; he needed to pack up for his mission anyway. They quickly made their way to Naruto's current home and once they were inside Naruto locked the doors, closed the windows, and made formed a few hand seals so that no one could hear what they were going to discuss.

"What's the matter?" he asked as he went about collecting things that he would need on his mission and dumping them on the bed.

"My spy network is getting closer to discovering more about the Akatsuki, and I think that Pain might be one of my former pupils," said Jiraiya, Naruto froze before he dropped the scrolls he was holding and pulled a chair, dragged it closer to Jiraiya, and sat down facing him, all his attention towards the Toad sage.

"Are you saying that the leader of the organization that is hunting me is one of my own master's students?" asked Naruto, a little note of disbelief creeping into his voice.

"No, the plan for gathering all the Bijuu sprits are not his, as I have said before someone else is controlling him, someone who needs the power of the Akatsuki to get to his goals but has no real ties to the Akatsuki and its ideals," clarified Jiraiya, he and Naruto had already deduced that someone was using the Akatsuki, but had not been able to find what his true identity is. The man was more elusive than any ninja Jiraiya had come across before, and his strength was above any ninja that they have heard of before right now. Jiraiya had said that the man's power was on par with the Shodaime Hokage, perhaps the strongest ninja Konoha had ever had. Many believed that the Yondaime Hokage was the strongest ninja in Konoha, but that was a misconception, the Fourth was the best strategist that Konoha had. He was undoubtedly very strong but, in terms of raw power, the Shodaime and the Nidaime over shadowed their successors.

"So what do you plan on doing?" asked the blonde, he had already guessed what the Sannin was going to do but he held his thoughts until after hearing his teacher.

"I will wait, maybe a few months, see if we get any more intel on them but I am planning on infiltration," replied Jiraiya, there was no doubt in his voice. He would do want was needed to be done and right now Akatsuki was posing to be a threat, not just to Konoha or the Fire country, but all the elemental nations. Naruto nodded, he was in fact hoping that Jiraiya was going to say something like that, it was time they truly realized what they were facing against if they wanted to capture Naruto and extract his bijuu.

"What do you want me to do? I really cannot do much other than keep on going as I am," replied Naruto, he was hoping that Jiraiya was going to suggest a way for him to train to his max without making the people in Konoha realize that he was a jinchuuriki.

"Take your training seriously, master the Black ops techniques to the best of your abilities. Make Kakashi realize that choosing to teach you was not a mistake, and once you have learned all that I will have Paa Fukasaku reverse teleport you to Myoboku to restart your training with the Fox chakra, this time full on, no limits. I will contact Bee as well and see if he is willing to finish your training, after all he has full control of the octopus," Jiraiya muttered the last part, if there was any one strong enough to face this mystery man that was using the Akatsuki, right now that was Killer Bee, the current Raikage's adopted brother. Naruto's grin was of that a child in a candy shop that was giving out free all you can eat candy.

"What about this mission, I would feel a lot better if you came instead of this Tenzo guy that Baa-chan chose to lead us. I can't help but feel that I am putting my teammates in danger because you clearly know how strong Orochimaru is and Sasuke has only improved from what he was. Even Kabuto fights on a level well beyond that of any chuunin. I know that me and Tenzo is probably on par with them, but what about the Chuunins that are coming with us, they have never fought enemies of this caliber, I doubt any young ninjas of this village has," said Naruto in a serious voice, and the worry on his face was enough for Jiraiya to realize just how much he has come to care for the new friends and comrades he has made in Konoha. It also gave Jiraiya immense pleasure in realizing that even though Naruto was a fearsome Shinobi, he still had the heart of a human, and never had he lost sight that humanity came before everything for Shinobis were there to protect humanity and balance in this world. "By the way do you know anything about Tenzo?"

"Yes, a very good ANBU captain and shinobi. He is the one with the Mokuton ability, the only survivor of the cloning process that ended in a disaster as all of them dies except for one," said the Toad Sannin. "He was handpicked and taught by Kakashi in the ways of the Black ops and later became very close friends. I am sure he is more than capable of keeping your friends safe."

"You mean the last Mokuton user in the world is in our team! Awesome, I have got to meet him, man I had been dying to see some cool techniques that were invented by Shodaime himself, this is going to be amazing!" shouted Naruto in glee as he jumped up and down.

"Don't worry kid, I am pretty sure you all will be fine, maybe you will even succeed in this mission," said Jiraiya and Naruto snorted at the absurdity of Jiraiya's suggestion. They had refrained from telling it to Tsunade but the chance of success on this mission was next to nil. There were too many unknown factors to effectively form a counter team. Short of a small army there was very little chance that they will be able to bring back Sasuke alive and without dying themselves.

"You know, I am not worried as much about Sasuke or Kabuto as I am worried about the Sound Four. They took out the Konoha nins without much trouble when they had tried to retrieve Sasuke before, and I know for a fact that in the past years Orochimaru had not let them sit idle and get fat, they have been training just as much as Sasuke. Their skills have grown too, if they are there then…" Naruto trailed off as if he had this discussion before and needn't complete his thoughts for Jiraiya to know what he is thinking.

"If they are then they will die," said Jiraiya with certainty that Naruto had rarely seen in him before. Jiraiya noticed Naruto's unconvinced expression and quickly continued. "Tell me Naruto, have you ever fought one of them before, just one on one?" asked Jiraiya as a small smirk crept on his face. Naruto's brows met in a frown and he shook his head, Jiraiya knew he had never actually gone up against those infamous ninjas before. "But I have, and frankly their notoriety is overrated. I could compare them to the weakest member of the Akatsuki and they still won't stand a chance. I have fought them, all of them against me, and I had breathing room. I have fought you one on one and you nearly beat me to death when you unleashed your four-tailed form with complete control. Trust me kid, against you, they really have no hope. Orochimaru's ability to make jutsus is still gone; you can be thankful for that, and probably the only reason why Tsunade is not sending me out there with you. And finally Gaki, at least humiliate the Uchiha before retreating, show him that his Kekkei Genkai blood is not everything. You, for example, are strong enough to be considered a genius but you are no master mind at jutsus, you just keep trying until you get it down, and that shows that no genius can over shadow a hard worker," Jiraiya finished and he still remembered the day when he had finally surpassed Orochimaru by beating him four times in a row in an all out sparring match, much to Sarutobi as well as Tsunade's surprise.

Naruto nodded a she got back up and packed the things he had been collecting on the bed into three pocket-sized scrolls before pulling out a very ANBU style suit and armor that Kakashi had given him a couple days earlier. The only difference between a traditional ANBU uniform and this suit was that instead of a sleeveless vest it consisted of a full sleeved leather armor, and unlike the gray colors in the ANBU outfit, this one was completely black. "Who gave you that armor, it is almost identical to the standard issue ANBU uniform!" exclaimed Jiraiya, already guessing who was behind this 'gift' to Naruto.

"It was real nice of Kakashi-sensei to get me this new armor, don't you think? My old one was nearly destroyed after half that cave in Suna collapsed on me," said Naruto in a happy tone, admiring the stunningly tailored suit, it was made of top quality armor material but was amazingly very flexible and light.

"Yeah, real nice," muttered Jiraiya, he never really liked that Kakashi, even though he did get into Jiraiya's good graces when Jiraiya found out that it was none other than Minato's favorite pupil that was the number one fan of his famous Icha Icha series. He also gave Kakashi a five-year free supply of any new releases that occurred but he did not like the extra fawning that the silver haired scare-crow was doing around his Godson. "Are you ready?" asked the white haired Sannin as he saw Naruto walk out of the bathroom, donned in the new armor, and looking quite dapper for that matter. Naruto nodded as he finished tying the Konoha headband on his forehead. Together they headed out towards the Konoha gate where Naruto will be leaving in fifteen minutes.

Much to Naruto's surprise, all his new friends were at the gate when he arrived. He noticed Sai was leaning against the wall, a little farther than the rest of the group with Ino fussing over his sword that was strapped to his back. Choji, Shikamaru, Kiba, and Lee were talking with Sakura, while Hinata, Neji, and Tenten were discussing something among themselves. He also noticed a masked ANBU crouched on top of the wall looking towards the horizon but his body language said that he was aware of everything that was happening in his vicinity. Jiraiya had taken to the road once he had noticed that Tsunade with two ANBU was making her way towards the gates along with her assistant Shizune carrying the pig Tonton.

Naruto jumped down from the roof that he was observing, directly in front of Neji and Tenten, beside a more than a little shocked Hinata. "Hey guys, what's the get together for?" he asked with a smile.

"Well we just came to see you guys off; you know make sure you beat Sasuke up even if you can't bring him back. Last time we met him, he and his Sound friends nearly killed all of us, we wouldn't have a chance without Shikamaru's quick thinking and the Sand trio coming to the rescue at just the right time. The bastard nearly ripped Lee's limbs off!" shouted Kiba, there was anger and contempt in his voice showing a deep seated resentment towards the man that he once considered a friend and ally. Naruto noticed all that but kept his thoughts to himself because he knew that there was a medic among them that still shared deep feelings for this remorseless Uchiha.

"Yes Uzumaki, in this we all agree with the Inuzuka. The Uchiha must be dealt with for deserting his village and attacking fellow shinobis and allies. It is true that we know you for a very small amount of time but your dedication towards this village and your endearing antics have earned a place among all our hearts," said Neji without a hint of emotion on his voice or his face. Yet, the people who knew Neji had their jaws lying on the floor, he had never shown a hint of emotion towards anyone, this was probably the first time that they remembered when Neji had even spoken of feelings and emotions. Naruto on the other hand wondered how someone could talk about their feelings with this much stoicism. "Konoha sure was a place of strange people, amazing, funny, great…but weird." The blonde jinchuurikis thoughts came to an end when Tsunade, along with her little party, strode towards them with a ferocious and determined expression on her face. Every one quieted immediately and every one stood a little straighter in the presence of their leader, Tenzo had jumped down and was standing near the wall, his head was pointed towards the Hokage but it was hard to tell where he was looking with his mask on.

"Team Seven, Assemble!" she shouted and Naruto, Sakura, Sai, and Tenzo immediately responded. Tenzo stood in front of the group, directly facing Tsunade with the rest were in kneeling positions, behind him, their heads bowed in respect towards the leader of the Konoha and its shinobis. All the other shinobis stood in attention; nobody had dared to play the slacker card in front of Tsunade after she had beaten a newly promoted Chuunin through three apartments when she had taken her position as Hokage over two years ago. He still couldn't walk without a crutch, and his career as a shinobi was quite over.

"Tenzo, take off your mask. In this mission you will be Yamato, this is not an ANBU mission so everyone under you is your responsibility, take care of them. You have all the information and mission details from Jiraiya and you know what the objective is. MOVE OUT!" Tsunade ordered and four blurs moved into the trees, as it appeared to those standing at the entrance gates.

**Hey guys, how was New Year's? Wow it has been so long since I posted! Anyway to tell the truth I had very little motivation to write the next chapter. Why? Because I got Skyrim and Skyward Sword for Christmas and they had occupied my time for more hours than I care to count. Btw, the games were awesome and I still haven't beaten either, so I will be spending more time with them. Plus my computer was all funky and I thought of getting a new one, but I won't until I know for sure that this one is down for the count. Anyway, I was really impressed with the number of reviews I got for the previous chapter, seems like people are starting to notice my story. Woohoo for me! Well here's the next chapter and I am open to ideas guys, any and all would be really helpful, plus I am starting on a new story so ideas for that will be very much appreciated and welcome too. If you want to discuss the story in greater detail, just shoot me a P.M. and plz plz plz review! **


End file.
